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WEBSTER,  N.Y.  14580 

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Microfiche 

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Collection  de 
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Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microraproductions  Institut  Canadian  da  microraproductions  historiquas 


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Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes/Note«  techniques  et  bibliographiques 


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ADiMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN. 


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THE  LIFE 


Of 


ADMIRAL 


Sir    Isaac    Coffin, 


BARONET 


HIS  ENGLISH  AND  AMERICAN  ANCESTORS 


BY 


THOMAS  C.  AMORY 


BOSTON 

CUPPLES,   UPHAM    AND    COMPANY 

1886 


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2782 


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Copyright,  1886,  by 
THOMAS  C.  AMORY 


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fwiiTma  ANB  •ooKiiNoiNa  coMnuir. 


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PREFACE. 


This  memoir,  in  its  original  form  of  a  discourse,  had  its  limitations  of 
time  and  topic.     Much  else  might  have  been  added  connected  with  the 
subject  had  the  occasion  allowed.     The  several  histories  of  Nantucket,  the 
"  Life  of  Tristram  Coffin,"  by  Mr.  Allen  Coffin  j  of  "  General  John  Coffin," 
by  his  son,  Henry  Edward ;  "  The  Arms  of  the  Family,"   by  Mr.  John 
Coffin  Jones  Brown,  are  well  known  and  accessible.     Other  sources  of 
information  exist  in  print  and  manuscript.     Bearing  in  niind  that  many 
readers  of  these  pages  will  find  them  more  instructive  if  they  have  at  hand 
what  will  better  explain  them,  I  have  borrowed  from  their  pages,  under 
marks  of  quotation,  in  the  larger  part  by  permission  and  with  grateful  ac- 
knowledgments.    If  I  have  been  too  bold,  I  pray  their  forgiveness.     Let 
me  also  express  my  sense  of  the  kindness  of  the  New  York  Genealogical 
and  Biographical  Society,  in  permitting  me  to  read  what  portions  of  this 
memoir  their  limits  permitted,  in  their  course,  and  to  have  tlicse  por- 
tions, somewhat  extended,  inserted  in  their  January  Record, 

Boston,  March  t,  1886. 


B9S 


CONTENTS. 


PAOB 

I.— Ancestry 7 

II.— Alwington 13 

III.— New  England 18 

IV.— Nantucket 21 

v.— Tristram's  Death  and  Descendants 2$ 

VI.— Boston  and  Isaac  Coffin 31 

VII.— Isaac  at  Sea 36 

VIII.— Captain  of  a  Seventy-four 41 

IX.— Peace  of  i  783 44 

X. — Marriage  and  Parliament 48 

XL— Genial  Temperament 51 

XII.— Benefactions  and  Death 54 

XIII. — The  Coffin  Coats  of  Arms , 60 

XIV.— TUCKETT'S  VIE'TATIONS  OF  DEVON 63 

XV.— Coffin  Dates 64 

XVI.— The  Reformation 66 

I XVII.— Allen  Coffin's  Call  of  Tristram's  Descendants  to  the 

Second  Centennial  of  his  Death  in  1881 68 

:VIII.— Wills 78 

XIX.— Correspondence 85 

XX.— The  Coffin  Schools 96 


THE    LIFE    OF 


.DMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


I. 

ANCESTRY. 

The  name  of  Coffin  is  so  widely  spread  over  our  continent,  so  many 
khousands  of  men  and  women  of  other  patronymics  take  pride  in  their  de- 
kcent  from  Tristram,  its  first  American  patriarch,  that  what  concerns  them 
kll,  any  considerable  branch  or  distinguished  individual  of  the  race,  seems 
father  history  than  biography. 

Space  forbids  my  repeating  here,  as  I  well  might  wish,  all  that  has  been 
Recorded  of  their  existence  in  the  new  world,  or  that  beyond  the  sea.  But 
irhat  sheds  light  on  Sir  Isaac  and  his  immediate  progenitors  is  too  ger- 
lane  to  my  subject  to  be  wholly  overlooked.  To  trace  back  Tristram  to 
klwington,  follow  his  fortunes  from  Plympton  in  old  England  to  the  Mer- 
imack  in  the  new,  bring  his  checkered  career  to  its  honored  close  at  Nan- 
icket ;  to  pay  due  homage  to  his  son  James,  the  upright  judge  ;  to  his  son 
Nathaniel,  the  dauntless  master  mariner,  and  his  wife,  Damaris  Gayer, 
le  eloquent  preacher  ;  to  their  son  William,  the  much-loved  merchant  of 
Joston,  senior  warden  of  Trinity ;  to  his  son,  another  Nathaniel,  graduate 
Harvard  and  Yale,  King's  treasurer,  and  father  of  Sir  Isaac — six  gene- 
itions  with  Tristram  of  admirable  men,  with  much  to  praise  and  little 
censure,  is  our  legitimate  purpose,  so  far  as  our  limits  prescribed  will 
|ermit,  before  proceeding  to  our  more  immediate  subject. 

Though  unlike  in  character,  and  of  very  different  experiences  from  his 

|ncestors.  Sir  Isaac  was  too  remarkable  a  man  to  pass  into  oblivion.     His 

}ng  life,  commencing  in  1 759  in  Boston,  and  ending  eighty  years  later  in 

!^heltenham,  England,  was  crowded  with  events,  many  of  historic  impor- 

mce.    By  his  native  vigor,  doughty  deeds,  and  eminent  services  he  rose 


m 


8 


THE  LIFE  OF 


!i 


I  ! 


to  distinguished  rank  in  the  British  navy,  became  captain  of  a  line-of-baltle 
ship  at  the  age  of  twenty-two,  and  was  created  a  baronet  at  the  age  of  forty- 
four.  This  not  from  large  means,  family  influence,  or  court  favor,  but  that 
his  character  and  conduct  afloat  and  ashore  entitled  him  to  such  prefer- 
ment. Throngs  of  h-^roic  officers  won  glory  in  the  same  wars  that  he  did, 
attracted  attention  by  more  conspicuous  achievements ;  but  his  fearless 
daring,  zeal,  and  ability,  and  what  he  accomplished,  inscribes  his  memory 
high  up  on  the  roll  of  honor,  if  not  on  the  scroll  of  fame. 

How  far  life  and  character  are  moulded  by  circumstances,  how  far  by 
heredity,  is  a  complicated  problem,  and  the  horoscope  is  too  largely  affected 
by  maternal  influences  for  these  to  be  disregarded.  Though  bearing  all  the 
marks  of  his  paternal  stock,  Sir  Isaac  doubtless  owed  something  to  the 
blood  mingling  in  his  veins  from  other  sources,  and  it  has  been  my  endeavor 
to  discover  these  infusions  where  I  can,  and  one  instance  should  be  pre- 
served for  the  criticism  of  coming  genealogists — a  supposed  link  that  may 
be  of  use. 

Nicholas,  father  of  Peter  and  grandfather  of  Tristram,  has  been  re- 
garded as  their  most  remote  paternal  ancestor  ascertained.  According  to 
tradition,  their  line  was  an  offshoot  of  Alwington,  but  how,  continued  a 
puzzle.  Many  years  ago  I  bought  an  old  edition  of  Collins  (1758),  and  while 
seeking  some  other  information,  my  eyes  fell  on  the  name  of  Peter  Coffin, 
who  about  1560  married  Mary,  fourth  daughter  of  Hugh  Boscawen.  Hugh 
died  1559,  at  the  age  of  eighty.  As  the  homes  of  the  Boscawens,  Tre- 
gothnan  and  Penkeville,  lay  near  Brixton,  the  home  of  Tristram,  this 
awakened  curiosity,  the  more  that  Peter's  name  was  not  in  the  index,  and 
might  have  escaped  the  notice  of  previous  genealogical  inquirers. 

Hugh  Boscawen,  of  one  of  the  most  affluent  and  influential  families  of 
Cornwall,  married  Phillippa  Carminow,  of  large  possessions  and  royal  de- 
scent, inheriting,  through  Philip  Courtenay,  the  unfortunate  Marquis  of  Ex- 
eter, Plympton,  and  other  estates  near  Plymouth,  part  of  which  we  find  the 
inheritance  of  Tristram.  Hugh  had  seven  sons  and  seven  daughters.  The 
third  son,  Nicholas,  eighty-six  when  he  died  in  1626,  was  the  successor  of 
his  parents  in  their  estates.  His  sister  Mary,  who  married  Peter  Coffin,  must 
have  been  born  about  1545,  as  there  were  nine  younger  children  than  her- 
self born  before  1559,  when  her  father  died  at  the  age  of  eighty.  Her 
brass  at  Penkeville  gives  her  death  in  1622.  Her  age  is  not  very  clearly 
stated,  but  apparently  as  seventy-seven.  Her  son  Nicholas,  if  grandfather 
of  Tristram,  would  have  been  of  an  age,  in  1582,  to  have  been  father  of 
Peter,  who  died  1628,  and  whose  wife  Joanna,  mother  of  Tristram,  died  in 
Boston,  1 66 1,  aged  seventy-seven,  having  been  born  in  1584. 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


9 


If  thus,  or  in  any  other  way,  connected  with  the  Coffins,  the  house  of 
Tregothnan  is  too  historical,  and  associated  with  too  many  important  events 
in  our  colonial  annals,  not  to  make  it  worthy  of  note.  Lord  Falmouth, 
under  Queen  Anne,  Edward,  the  commander  of  the  British  fleet  in  the  sec- 
ond reduction  of  Louisbourg,  in  more  recent  days,  have  added  to  the  lustre 
of  a  name  prolific  in  naval  heroes  and  eminent  statesmen.  The  importance 
we  attach  to  this  supposed  connection  is  that  it  affords  clews  to  ascertain  the 
relation  of  Tristram  to  Alwington,  and  as  Petronel,  the  sister  of  Mrs.  Peter 
Coffin,  married  Peter  Mayhowe,  a  possible  explanation  how  Thomas  May- 
hew  and  Tristram  Coffin  here  together  planted  Nantucket.  Tuckett's 
Devon  Visitations,  full  as  to  the  main  male  line  of  Alwington,  are  being 
carried  back,  extended  out,  and  brought  down  by  Colonel  Vivyan,  who  is 
approaching  the  Coffins.  My  suggestions  may  help  his  researches,  and 
they  are  given  for  what  they  are  worth. 

But  who  was  the  father  of  Peter  Coffin,  who  married  Mary  Bos- 
cawen?  He  must  have  been  born  about  1500.  If  among  the  recorded 
members  of  the  family  are  found  individuals  whose  dates  or  other  known 
circumstances  are  inconsistent  with  the  parentage  of  Peter,  that  reduces  the 
field  of  investigation.  Sceptical  minds  reject  hypothesis  in  such  researches, 
but  often  hypothesis,  fairly  tested,  is  the  only  path  to  the  truth.  At  Monk- 
ley,  about  ten  miles  east  from  Portlege,  one  of  the  homes  of  its  junior 
branches,  dwelt  at  the  time  James,  son  of  Richard  and  Miss  Chudleigh, 
whose  brother  John  inan'ed  Mary  Cary.  His  wife,  Mary  Cole,  was  the  near 
kinswoman  of  Wiliam,  w  10  married  Radigan,  daughter  of  Nicholas  Bos- 
cawen.  Tristram  named  his  sons  after  his  ancestors.  James  was  his  fourth 
son.  These  circumstances  amount  to  nothing  as  proof,  but  may  lead  to  it, 
or  perhaps  confirm  the  conclusion  of  Mr.  Allen  Coffin,  that  the  connection 
with  Alwington,  if  any,  is  much  more  remote.  Near  the  close  will  be 
found  an  article  on  this  and  other  kindred  topics,  portions  of  which  by  his 
permission  I  insert. 

In  the  sequel  will  be  found  the  visitation  of  the  Coffins  of  Portlege. 
Its  examination  will  show  other  grounds  on  which  we  rest  our  faith  as  to 
the  parentage  of  Peter.  It  will  be  seen  that  in  the  sixth  generation  John 
Coffin  married  Philippa,  daughter  and  co-heiress  of  Phillip  Hingston.  His 
eldest  son  Richard,  Sheriff  of  Devon  in  1511  (2  Hen.  VIII.),  married  Wil- 
mot,  daughter  of  Sir  Richard  Chudleigh,  famous  in  legal  annals  as  party 
in  a  leading  case  which  bears  his  name.  This  marriage  took  place  about 
15  *o-  The  Sheriff  had  three  sons,  John,  James,  and  Edward.  The  second, 
James,  born  as  late  as  15 12,  might  well  have  been  father  of  Peter,  who, 
about  1562,  married  Mary  Boscawen.     Their  son  Nicholas,  if  born  in  1563, 


f 


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THE  LIFE  OF 


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would  have  been  old  enough  in  1585  to  have  been  father  of  Peter,  who, 
the  father  of  Tristram,  died  in  1628.  Wedlock  came  early  when  there 
were  few  other  distractions.  Under  favorable  circumstances  life  was  often 
prolonged  beyond  the  average  limit ;  but  war,  exposure,  perhaps  inferior 
medical  skill,  backwardness  of  medical  science,  sufficiently  explain  why  so 
many  failed  to  live  out  their  allotted  span.  As  the  line  consists  mainly 
of  eldest  sons,  less  time  embraced  these  several  generations. 

The  best  known  of  the  brothers  of  the  Sheriff,  Sir  William,  born  about 
1480,  going  to  Court,  stood  high  in  the  estimation  of  Henry  the  Eighth. 
Like  Raleigh,  later  from  the  same  province,  he  won  his  way  by  his  wit  and 
courage.  He  was  selected  in  15 19  by  the  King  as  one  of  the  eighteen 
English  knights  to  take  part  in  the  tournament  before  Guines,  in  France, 
with  a  like  number  of  French  gentlemen,  practised  in  arms  and  re- 
nowned for  prowess.  He  was  Master  of  Horse  at  the  coronation  of  Anne 
Boleyn,  and  app^^'nted  one  of  the  gentlemen  of  the  King's  Privy  Chamber, 
filled  to  the  monarch's  satisfaction  a  position  of  distinction  and  influence 
much  coveted  at  Court.  He  married  Margaret,  the  daughter  of  Sir  George 
Dimock,  the  champion  of  England,  and  from  her,  after  his  death  the  wife 
of  Richard  Manners,  descended  the  later  Dukes  of  Rutland.  Sir  William 
took  a  prominent  part  in  the  Parliament,  one  ecclesiastical  abuse  being 
done  away  with  at  his  instance.""  At  Standon,  a  royal  manor,  of  which  he 
was  high  steward  when  he  died  in  1538,  stands  his  monument.  He  left  no 
children,  and  by  his  will  devised  his  lands  to  his  brother  Richard's  sons, 
bequeathed  his  hawks,  hounds,  and  hunting  gear  to  the  King.  His 
brothers  James  and  Thomas  had  children,  but  the  dates  confirm  the  view 
that  his  nephew,  James,  and  Mary  Cole  were  the  parents  of  Peter,  who 
married  Mary  Boscawen. 

Doubtless  there  were  other  branches  of  tht  name,  from  among  which 
we  might  look  for  the  ancestry  of  Tristram.  His  earliest  progenitors  in 
England  came  over  with  the  Conqueror  in  1066.  Captain  Henry  Coffin, 
in  his  memoir  of  General  John  Coffin,  1880,  says  that  several  years  before 
he  had  visited  Falaise,  in  Normandy,  and  near  that  place  lay  estates  owned 
eight  centuries  earlier  by  the  Coffins,  before  they  crossed  over  the  Channel 
to  the  land  of  promise.  These  estates  were  still  the  property  of  their  de- 
scendants in  the  female  line.  Falaise  will  be  remembered  as  the  birth- 
place of  the  Conqueror.  It  is  said  that  the  name  of  Coffin  was  a  corrup- 
tion or  translation  of  Colvinus,  signifying  a  basket  or  chest,  and  that  from 


•  This  act,  limiting  the  amount  of  mortuaries,  the  fees  of  the  parish  priest  for  burial,  has  been  counted  one 
of  three  statutes  mentioned  by  the  historians  as  ecclesiastical  reforms  which,  from  the  abuses  done  away  and 
the  debates  they  provoked,  helped  to  bring  about  the  Reformation. 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC   COFFIN,  BART. 


II 


charge  of  the  King's  treasure — such  employment,  like  royalty  itself,  being 
hereditary — the  name  attached  to  the  family.  The  confidence  implied 
by  its  responsible  duties  seems  explained  by  the  integrity  which  has 
been  characteristic  of  all  their  successive  generations.  Such  virtue  was  its 
own  reward,  and  if  too  generous  to  be  noted  for  many  instances  of  afflu- 
ence, they  even  in  that  regard  were  prospered  as  they  multiplied  and 
spread  over  the  earth. 

Of  the  first  who  came  over  to  England  little  seems  known.  Westcote 
tells  us  that  Alwington  in  1085,  according  to  Domesday,  was  possessed 
by  David  De  la  Bere,  and  that  the  heiress  of  that  name  brought  it  to  the 
Coffins.  On  a  subject  less  grave  this  might  be  suspected  for  a  jest, 
but  the  authority  is  proof.  Sir  William  Pole,  page  386,  states  that 
Fir  Richard  Coffin  held  two  knights'  fees  there  from  Robert,  the  King's 
son,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  II.  Whether  earlier  than  this  or  later,  flourished 
branches  of  that  name  at  Combe  Coffin,  now  Combe  Pine,  in  the  east  of 
Devon ;  at  Coffin  Well,  in  the  south,  and  at  Ingarley  in  the  west.  Sir 
Hugh,  Sir  Elias,  Sir  GeofTry,  are  mentioned  in  the  records  later  than  the 
first  of  a  long  line  of  Richards  who,  with  some  breaks  in  the  continuity  of 
name  and  knighthood,  held  Alwington  and  dwelt  there.  At  Coffin's  Ingar- 
ley once  stood  a  noble  mansion,  with  a  church  near  by,  surrounded  by  an 
extensive  deer  park.  Its  lord.  Sir  Elias,  about  1200,  bore  gilded  spurs  in 
token  of  his  military  rank,  and  Sir  Hugh,  of  Combe  Coffin,  his  contempo- 
rary, was  similarly  distinguished.  They  may  have  been  offshoots  of  Al- 
wington, or  that  branch  of  theirs.  From  among  them  might  possibly  have 
proceeded  our  branch  in  this  country,  but  we  think  not. 

It  musi  rtot  be  forgotten  that  in  the  pedigree  of  Coffin  in  "  the  Devon 
Visitations  '  there  is  mention  made  of  a  Nicholas,  who,  so  far  as  regards 
dates,  could  not  have  been  Tristram's  grandfather.  Richard,  the  sheriff, 
1511,  was  born  in  all  probability  thirty  years  at  the  least  before  he  was 
made  sheriff.  His  son  John,  born  about  15 10,  married  Mary  Cary,  and 
their  second  son,  John,  born  after  1569,  was  not  of  an  age  before  1589  to 
be  married.  His  wife  was  Grace  Berry,  daughter  of  Richard  of  Berrynar- 
bor.  Their  third  son,  Nicholas,  aged  seven  when  the  visitation  was  made, 
probably  in  1620,  must  have  been  born  in  16 13,  in  which  year  Nicholas, 
father  of  Peter,  who  died  in  1628,  and  grandfather  of  our  Tristram,  passed 
away. 

It  is  well  also  to  bear  in  mind,  in  connection  with  this  inquiry  as  to 
the  ancestry  of  Tristram,  that  Anna,  daughter  of  Sir  William  Chudleigh, 
who  died  in  15 15,  married  James  Coffin,  of  Portlege,  brother  of  the 
Sheriflf.     Her  niece  Wilmot,  daughter  of  Sir  Richard  Chudleigh,  who  died 


12 


THE  LIFE  OF 


1558,  was  the  wife  of  the  Sheriff.  As  the  eldest  son  of  Sir  Richard  Chud- 
leigh,  Christopher,  was  thirty  years  and  more  at  his  father's  death,  Wilmot 
might  seem  to  have  been  much  younger  than  her  husband.  Still,  the  ex- 
pression, **  thirty  years  and  more,"  in  legal  documents,  at  the  period,  was 
very  indefinite.  It  seemed  to  leave  open  the  question  whether  James 
Coffin  and  Anna  Chudleigh  are  among  the  possibilities  for  the  parentage 
of  Peter,  great-grandfathc  of  Tristram,  James,  the  Sheriff's  son,  and  Mary 
Cole,  or  others  yet  to  be  discovered. 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


13 


ALWINGTON. 

But  why  seek  to  trace  Tristram's  lineage  to  Alwington  ?  The  beauty 
of  the  place,  the  character  of  its  long  line  of  proprietors  through  seven 
hundred  years — one  of  the  very  few  instances,  even  in  England,  in  which  an 
estate  has  remained  for  so  great  a  length  of  time  in  the  same  family — which 
has  never  been  sold,  sequestered,  or  confiscated,  or  passed  except  by  in- 
heritance, will,  or  family  settlement,  which  has  continued  not  only  their 
chiei  but  constant  habitation,  suggests  a  home  so  enduring,  qualities  so 
sterling,  that  in  a  world  changeable  as  this  it  is  solacing  to  every  conserva* 
tive  element  in  our  nature  to  believe  we  too  belong  to  it. 

Alwington  extends  along  the  Severn  Sea,  south  of  the  boundary  between 
Somerset  and  Devon,  fronting  the  broad  Atlantic.  The  mighty  billows  roll 
in  majestic  force  against  its  cliffs  and  crags.  The  domain  now  embraces 
thirty-eight  *  hundred  acres,  part  in  fertile  farms  with  substantial  steadings ; 
part  in  park  and  pleasure-grounds,  studded  with  forest  trees  in  clumps  and 
woods.  Its  area  may  have  expanded  in  prosperous  days,  or  been  shorn 
down  to  provide  for  junior  branches  ;  but  its  grounds  are  substantially  the 
same  now  as  under  the  Plantagenets,  or  when  it  first  came  to  the  Coffins 
with  the  heiress  of  the  De  la  Beres. 

When  we  call  to  mind  what  this  beautiful  regioi)  embraces  from  the 
Severn  Sea  to  its  southern  shores,  Exmoor  and  Dartmoor,  which  Black- 
more  and  Kingsley  have  so  brilliantly  described,  its  romantic  streams  and 
majestic  hills,  with  their  wild  sublimity — and  who  has  not  read  "  Loma 
Doon  " — we  can  well  consider  it  a  privilege  that  such  associations  cluster 
I  about  our  own  ancestral  memories,  that  the  Coffins  and  so  many  Americans 
I  from  Devon  have  such  good  reason  to  be  proud  of  their  mother-country, 
feel  deeper  interest  in  their  progenitors  that  they  dwelt  amid  scenes  so 
\  picturesque.     Our  kinswoman,  Mrs.  Johnson,  will  pardon  me  if  I  draw 
in  part  from  her  own  eloquent  account  of  Portlege  what  will  convey  a 
I  more  perfect  idea  of  the  place. 

The  approach  from  Bideford  in  Somersetshire  south  to  Portlege,  the 
I  manor-house  of  Alwington,  extends  for  four  miles  along  a  shaded  road,  lined 

*  Late  ceniM. 


14 


THE  LIFE  OF 


I'T 
III 


'li 


on  either  side  with  hixuriant  hedges,  brambled  vines,  and  grasses.  Half  a 
mile  from  the  house  the  road  reaches  the  great  gateway,  which  opens  on 
grounds  tastefully  disposed  ;  for  time  and  taste  and  means  eilect  marvels 
about  the  old  homes  of  England.  Lawns  and  gardens  in  a  fine  state  of 
cultivation  spread  around,  with  that  depth  of  verdure  and  coloring  peculiar 
to  the  proximity  to  the  sea ;  for  in  Devon  the  grape  and  peach,  if  protected, 
ripen  beside  the  pear  and  plum. 

The  house  sets  low  for  shelter  from  the  blasts,  and  is  not  conspicuous  until 
closely  approached.  The  spirit  of  repose  that  it  breathes,  of  the  times  that 
have  passed,  of  the  various  vicissitudes  of  sorrow  and  enjoyment  that  have 
cheered  or  tried  its  generations,  noted  for  their  culture  and  refinement  as 
they  have  come  and  passed  from  infancy  to  age,  cannot  escape  your  at- 
tention in  the  photograph  of  the  edifice. 

About  the  same  distance  from  the  house,  along  the  shore,  stretches  a 
beach  looking  out  over  the  Atlantic,  to  which  a  shaded  walk  from  the 
house  winds  among  ferns  and  groves  thick  with  shrubs  and  rich  with  vari- 
ous verdure.  Seats  judiciously  disposed  afford  a  resting-place  for  the 
enjoyment  of  the  view  and  the  breeze.  About  a  mile  away  stands  the  old 
church,  bosked  in  mossy  foliage,  quiet  and  secluded,  no  dwelling  in  sight, 
venerable  with  age,  if  too  substantial  for  decay.  Its  pews  of  oak,  black 
with  time,  are  richly  carved,  as  often  seen  in  these  ancient  shrines.  Here 
more  than  twenty  generations  have  brought  their  children  in  arms  to  the 
font,  their  dead  for  sepulchre.  Here  their  blooming  maidens,  their  own  or 
their  tenants',  have  come  to  be  joined  in  wedlock.  The  walls  and  floors  of 
the  edifice,  as  the  burial  ground  around  it,  are  crowded  with  slabs  and  monu- 
ments that  relate,  with  the  same  touching  simplicity,  the  annals  of  them 
all. 

Within  the  walls  of  the  mansion,  which  are  of  stone,  with  coigns  and 
buttresses  and  battlements,  windows  varied  but  harmonious,  is  a  large, 
square  entrance  hall  with  gallery  on  the  level  of  the  second  floor.  This  j 
and  the  spacious  dining-room  are  lined  with  family  portraits ;  men  and 
women  in  antiquated  garb,  representing  the  blue  eyes  and  characteristic 
features  of  the  race.  Carved  doors  abound  of  stately  dimensions,  and 
ceilinj^s  of  faded  grandeur,  displaying  in  many  colors  the  emblazonments 
and  quarterings  of  the  family  arms  and  of  others  of  the  best,  connected  with 
them  by  marriage.  Many  are  derived  from  royal  and  noble  progenitors— 
Pomeroys,  Beaumonts,  Chudleighs,  Courtenays,  Prideaux,  Carys,  Cham- 
pernouns,  Cliffords,  Bassets,  Damerels,  of  Devon  or  adjacent  counties. 
Imagination  conjures  up  the  throng  of  these  personages,  long  mouldered, 
as  on  festal  occasions  they  gathered  to  the  banquet  or  the  dance,  roamed 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


if 


and  wooed  by  the  moonbeams,  shot  arrows  at  the  targe,  let  loose  the  fal- 
con, or  rode  after  the  hounds. 

The  ancient  forms  and  arrangements  of  the  mansion,  modified  to  meet 
as  well  the  requirements  of  modern  taste  and  comfort  as  to  retain  what  is  old 
or  quaint,  combine  to  constitute  Portlege  a  most  agreeable  home  to  dwell 
in.  It  was  once  famous  for  its  precious  and  extensive  library,  its  archives 
rich  with  the  accumulations  of  many  generations.  Sad  to  say,  about  1800, 
in  the  transfer  under  a  settlement  to  another  branch,  the  books  were  mostly 
sold  and  many  documents  dispersed.  There  still  remain  vast  coffers  of 
manuscript  treasures,  which  in  time  must  perish,  but  which  should,  before 
too  late,  be  arranged,  copied,  translated  into  intelligible  language,  calen- 
dared, catalogued,  and  indexed.  Some  antiquary  of  the  family  may  yet  be 
born  to  the  faith  that  he  can  devote  his  days  to  no  better  field  of  service  to 
posterity  than  such  a  task. 

Before  taking  leave  of  Alwington,  as  Tristram's  progenitors  passed  off 
from  the  ancestral  stem,  an  enumeration  of  the  succeeding  generations 
from  John  and  Mary  Gary  may  be  of  interest.  Their  second  son  wedded 
Grace,  daughter  of  Richard  Berrie,  of  Berrianarbor ;  Richard,  the  oldest, 
1569-1617  (forty-eight),  Elizabeth,  1571-1651  (aged  eighty),  daughter  of 
Leonard  Loveis,  of  Cornwall.  With  the  eight  sons  and  seven  daughters  of 
Richaid,  as  they  grew  into  life,  Portlege  must  have  been  gay,  and  as  the 
daughters,  at  least,  followed  in  rapid  succession  to  their  nuptials,  not  even 
what  was  disagreeable  in  the  Stuart  monarchs  or  the  contentions  of  the  land 
could  have  cast  a  shadow  so  remote  from  the  court  and  battle-field.  When 
the  mother  died,  in  165 1,  James,  the  fifth  son  and  last  survivor,  erected  in 
the  church  of  Alwington  a  monument  to  the  memory  of  his  parents,  with 
an  inscription  which  tells  in  rude  rhymes  their  story.  The  eldest  of  the  two 
sons  left  two  daughters,  Jane  and  Elizabeth,  and  the  inheritance  passed  to 
a  second  Richard,  1622-99,  "Without  an  enemy  while  living,  and  univer- 
sally lamented  when  dead."  His  wife  was  Ann  Prideaux,  daughter  of  Ed- 
mund, of  Padstow,  1645-1705,  who  died  at  the  age  of  sixty.  He  was 
much  esteemed,  and  in  1686  was  sheriff  of  Devon  under  James  II. 

The  children  of  the  sheriff  and  Ann  Prideaux  were  Bridget,  John,  Ho- 
nora,  and  Richard.  The  eldest  son  married  Ann  Kellond,  travelled  exten- 
sively over  Europe,  stood  well  for  character  and  scholarship,  but  died  at 
the  age  of  twenty-five  in  1 703.     Honora  married  Richard  Bennett ;  Dor- 

I  othy,  Richard  Pyne,  from  whom  came  the  Pyne  Cofiins.  Richard,  who 
succeeded  his  brother  John  in  1 703,  for  seventy-three  years  was  lord  of 
Alwington,  and  died  there  in  1776  unmarried.     He  settled  the  estates  first 

I  on  the  Bennetts,  Robert  and  Richard,  who  died  without  children ;  and  the 


I*'' 


It 

If 


hi 


M^, 


Li 


(    1 


S4 


Id 


THE  LIFE  OF 


reversion  went  to  the  Pynes  descended  from  Honora,  who  took  the  name  | 
of  Coffin.     The  present  proprietor,  born  1841,  was  the  grandson  of  Rich- 
ard, great-grandson  of  the  youngest  daughter  of  the  sheriff,  who  died  1699, 1 
and  Ann  Prideaux,  who  died  1705.     As  Mr.  Pyne  Coffin  has  a  large  fam- 
ily of  fine  healthy  children,  there  seems  no  chance  of  any  of  the  male  line  | 
of  the  Coffins  ever  succeeding  to  Alwington. 

It  is  believed  the  male  representation  of  the  family  rests  in  some  de- 
scendant of  Peter  Coffin,  who  about  1560  married  Mary  Boscawen.    A  few  I 
words  remain  to  be  said  about  them.   Phillippa  Carminow,  mother  of  Mrs, 
Mary  Coffin,  was,  as  already  mentioned,  co-heiress  of  that  part  of   the 
Courtenay  estates  which  escaped  forfeiture  when  the  Marquis  of  Exeter,  | 
next  to  the  crown,  was  beheaded.     Plympton,  near  the  home  of  Tristram, 
formed  part  of  the  Courtenay  inheritance  which  Phillippa  Carminow  car- 
ried to  Hugh  Boscawen,  of  Tregothnan,  1469-1559,  as  his  wife.     Their  I 
home  was  at  Penkevil,  not  far  up  the  river  from  Brixton,  and  is  still  the 
home  of  the  Lords  of  Falmouth,  their  representatives.     Evidence  is  found 
in  an  inquisition  of  William  and  Mary,  1558,  of  the  Coffins,  of  Portlege, 
holding  lands  at  Plympton,  which  may  have  come  through  the  Boscawen's 
by  this  marriage,  or  perhaps  may  have  led  to  it.    At  Plympton  and  Brixton 
Nicholas,  grandfather  of  Tristram,  and  Peter,  his  father,  resided  ;  and  Tris- 
tram took,  by  the  will  of  his  father,  Peter,  subject  to  his  mother's  life  es- 
tate,  these  lands,  or  a  part  of  them,  which  it  would  seem  likely  came  in  this  | 
way  or  through  the  Hingstons. 

Many  have  searched  for  the  ancestral  line  of  Tristram  among  the  rec- 
ords of  Devonshire.  No  one  has  as  yet  been  able,  as  already  stated,  to  I 
trace  with  certainty  his  pedigree  beyond  that  of  his  grandfather,  Nicholas! 
CofTyn.  Sir  Isaac,  in  memorializing  the  College  of  Arms,  in  1804,  for  the! 
grant  of  a  coat  for  himself,  represented  that  he  was  by  tradition  descended! 
from  the  family  of  Coffin,  of  the  west  of  England,  but  that  he  was  unable  I 
to  ascertain  his  descent.  No  doubt  seems  entertained,  however,  that  the! 
proper  investigation  of  the  matter  will  some  time  reveal  Tristram's  tniej 
pedigree  extending  much  further  back ;  if  not  that  suggested,  what  is  now| 
unknown  will  prove  as  honorable  as  that  which  we  now  know  with  reason- 
able certainty. 

Tristram  Coflfyn,  of  Butler's  Parish,  of  Brixton,  County  of  Devon,  Engl 
land,  made  his  will  November  16,  1601,  which  was  proved  at  Totness,  in| 
the  same  county,  in  1602. 

He  left  legacies  to  Joan,  Anne,  and  John,  children  of  Nicholas  Cof-I 
fyn ;  Richard  and  Joan,  children  of  Lionel  Coffyn ;  Philip  CofTyn,  and! 
his  son  Tristram ;  and  appointed  Nicholas,  son  of  Nicholas  Coffyn,  hisl 


ill 


I 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,   BART. 


17 


executor.  He  was  probably  the  great-uncle  of  the  first  of  the  race  in 
America. 

Nicholas  Coflfyn,  of  Brixton  (one  account  says  Butler's  Parish),  in 
Devonshire,  in  his  will,  dated  September  12,  16 13,  and  proved  November 
3,  1613,  mentions  his  wife  Joan,  and  sons  Peter,  Nicholas,  Tristram,  John, 
and  daughter  Anne.  He  was  the  grandfather  of  the  entigrant  to  New 
England,  and  born  about  1560,  probably  the  son  of  Mary  lioscawen.  He 
lived  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  the  Tudors,  and  saw  the  reign  of  the 
Stuarts  commenced  in  the  person  of  James  VI.  of  Scotland  and  I.  of  Eng- 
land. He  died  in  the  reign  of  James  I.  (16 13).  His  eldest  son,  Peter, 
doubtless  succeeded  to  his  estates  ;  and  his  youngest  son,  John,  acquired 
some  estate,  as  he  made  our  Tristram  his  executor.  The  other  sons, 
Nicholas  and  Tristram,  have  not  been  accounted  for ;  neither  has  his 
daughter  Anne. 

Peter  Coffyn,  of  Brixton,  in  his  will,  dated  December  i,  1627,  and 
proved  March  13,  1628,  provides  that  his  wife  Joan  (Thember)  shall  have 
possession  of  the  land  during  her  life,  and  then  the  said  property  shall  go 
to  his  son  and  heir,  Tristram,  "  who  is  to  be  provi  'ed  for  according  to  his 
degree  and  calling."  His  son  John  is  to  have  certain  property  when  he 
becomes  twenty  years  of  age.  He  mentions  his  daughters  Joan,  Deborah, 
Eunice,  and  Mary,  and  refers  to  his  tenement  in  Butler's  Parish,  called 
Silferhay.     He  was  the  father  of  the  emigrant. 

John  Coffyn,  of  Brixton,  an  uncle  of  the  emigrant,  who  died  without 
issue,  in  his  will,  dated  January  4,  1628,  and  proved  April  3,  1628,  ap- 
points his  nephew,  Tristram  Coffyn,  his  executor,  and  gives  legacies  to  all 
of  Tristram's  sistc-s,  all  under  twelve  years  of  age. 


I    "li'l 


i8 


THE  LIFE  OF 


III. 


NEW  ENGLAND. 

What  motives  induced  Tristram,  in  1642,  to  dispose  of  so  pleasant  an 
abode  and  come  to  America  can  be  conjectured,  but  are  not  positively 
known.  It  has  been  said  that  he  had  been  employed  as  colonel  in  com- 
mand of  the  garrison  at  Plymouth,  but  this  is  not  authenticated,  and  may 
have  referred  to  his  uncle  Tristram ;  but  we  do  know  that  in  its  defence 
his  only  brother,  John,  had  been  slain.  Tristram  had  married,  at  the  early 
period  customary  in  those  primitive  times,  Dionis  Stevens,  and  had  already 
five  children — Peter,  Tristram,  Elizabeth,  James,  and  Jrhn.         ' 

As  his  brother  John  was  killed  at  Plymouth  Fort,  it  may  be  that 
Tristram  was  in  the  fight.  The  Stuarts  made  sorry  kings,  and  the  resist- 
ance they  provoked  to  their  arbitrary  rule  seems  justified.  But  England 
was  seething  on  the  verge  of  twenty  years  of  contention,  and  Tristram,  not 
over-fond  of  either  party,  and  imperilled  by  the  part  he  had  taken,  with 
ten  women  and  children  in  his  charge,  may  have  been  glad  to  escape 
persecution  for  them  and  himself  in  America.  1  wo  of  his  four  sisters 
married  in  Devon.  Two,  Mary  and  Eunice,  with  their  mother,  his  wife, 
and  five  children,  accompanied  him  in  1642,  the  year  King  Charles  placed 
himself  in  open  array  against  the  parliament. 

That  he  came  in  that  of  the  four  vessels — Hector,  Griffin,  Job  Clement, 
and  Margaret  Clement,  belonging  to  Captain  Robert  Clement,  that  came 
over  in  1642,  which  Captain  Clement  himself  commanded — is  well  authenti- 
cated. It  is  known  that  after  a  brief  residence  at  Salisbury,  he  moved  up 
the  river  that  year  to  what  is  now  the  next  town,  Haverhill,  to  form  that 
settlement  with  Clement,  on  land  bought  from  the  Sachem  Pasconaway. 

With  this  large  and  dependent  family  of  nine  women  and  children,  Tris- 
tram crossed  the  sea,  disembarking  at  the  mouth  of  the  Merrimac,  where 
they  so  long  made  their  home.  The  births  of  his  other  children  born  in 
America  show  the  different  periods  he  resided  in  Salisbury,  Haverhill,  on 
the  north  of  the  river,  and  at  Newbury,  to  its  south.  We  have  no 
knowledge  of  his  going  far  from  that  neighborhood  during  the  next  sixteen 
years,  till  he  went  to  Nantucket,  though  it  seems  reasonable  to  suppose 
that  he  did  so. 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,   BART. 


19 


The  property  they  brought  sufficed  to  support  in  comfort  the  families  ol 
his  mother  and  his  own,  and  to  establish  respectably  in  marriage,  as  they 
grew  up,  his  sisters  and  his  sons.  He  first  settled  himself  at  Salisbury,  in 
the  three-mile  space  between  the  Merrimack  and  the  New  Hampshire 
border,  as  fixed  by  the  patent ;  but  removed  that  year  to  Haverhill,  adjoin- 
ing Salisbury,  up  the  river,  for  in  1642,  in  November,  his  name  is  attachs-J 
to  an  Indian  r^eed  there.  There  Mary,  afterward  Mrs.  Starbuck,  was 
born,  and  John  the  first  having  died,  another  took  his  place.  In  1648 
Tristram  removed  to  Newbury,  where  his  youngest  son,  Stephen,  was  added 
to  the  family  group.  After  residing  there  for  several  years,  during  which 
he  was  licensed  to  keep  an  inn  and  a  ferry  over  the  Merrimack,  Tristram 
returned  to  Salisbury,  where  he  became  a  county  magistrate. 

Salisbury  was  close  to  the  border  of  New  Hampshire,  and  his  eldest  son, 
Peter,  a  merchant  and  king's  counsellor  in  Dover,  in  that  province,  not 
far  removed  from  Salisbury,  married,  about  1657,  Abigail,  daughter  of 
Edward  Starbuck ;  and  his  second  son,  Tristram,  in  1653,  Judith,  daughter 
of  Captain  Edmund  Greenleaf,  widow  of  Henry  Somerby.  The  descend- 
ants of  this  marriage  of  Tristram,  Jr.'s,  have  ever  since  occupied  this 
fine  old  mansion  which  Somerby  had  left  her,  or  her  father,  Captain 
Greenleaf,  bestowed. 

Edward  Starbuck  had  come  over  from  Derbyshire  in  1640,  and  estab- 
lished himself  at  Dover.  Elder  of  the  Church  and  Representative,  he 
became  a  Baptist,  and  soon  after  a  Quaker.  Both  he  and  Thomas  Macy 
are  said  to  have  been  among  the  chief  promoters  of  the  settlement  of  Nan- 
tucket.* It  was  no  doubt  often  discussed,  and  perhaps  slowly  brought  about. 
Nantucket,  an  island  fifteen  miles  by  four,  embracing  an  area  of  about 
thirty  thousand  acres,  lay  at  the  southern  extremity  of  what  is  now  Massa- 
chusetts. It  was  then  part  of  New  York,  and  so  remained  till  1692.  When 
the  project  was  ripe,  and  it  was  concluded  to  purchase,  Tristram,  early  in 
1659,  tii^de  a  voyage  of  inquiry  and  observation  to  the  group  of  islands  off 
the  Massachusetts  coast  with  this  "iew.  He  first  visited  Martha's  Vine- 
yard, whither  Thomas  Mayhew  (1591-1681-90),  formerly  a  merchant  in 
Southampton  in  England,  had,  in  1647,  removed  from  Watertown  to  preach 
to  and  convert  the  Indians.  The  name  of  his  first  wife,  Martha  Parkurst, 
he  doubtless  gave  to  the  vineyard  where  he  so  long  dwelt  gathering  souls 
from  the  heathen. 


..1 


*  Fifteen  miles  by  eleven  in  the  widest  part,  and  twenty  miles  south  of  the  peninsular  of  Cape  Cod,  tao 
miles  S.S.E.  of  Boston.  I.atitude  41°  13' to  41'  ai'N.;  longitude  69'  56'  to  70"  13'.  Population,  i8ao, 
7>2fi6.  In  1824  Sir  Isaac  was  there ;  in  1826, 35a  vessels  engaged  in  the  fisheries,  3139a  in  the  coasting 
trade,  entered  its  port.    This  was  before  the  era  of  steam.— Liebci's  V.nc  Am. 


20 


THE  LIFE  OF 


i 


I 


i    lilfi 


We  are  inclined  to  believe,  though  we  have  no  conclusive  proof,  that 
the  attention  of  Tristram  was  first  called  to  Nantucket  by  Mayhew,  and  the 
question  suggests  itself  whether  it  had  not  been  from  consanguinity  that 
Mayhew  proposed  or  urged  the  settlement.  He  held,  in  1649,  a  convey- 
ance of  Nantucket,  as  he  did  of  Martha's  Vineyard,  from  Lord  Sterling. 
Born  in  1591,  Petronel  Boscawen,  sister  of  Mary,  may  have  been  his 
mother  or  grandmother.  That  Mary  Boscawen  was  Tristram's  great-grand- 
mother seems  more  than  probable.  Southampton,  by  sea,  is  not  far  from 
Plymouth.  It  is  the  seaport  of  Wiltshire.  Mayhew  named  two  towns  on 
the  Vineyard  from  places  in  that  county. 

Mayhew  and  Mayhowe  bear  the  same  arms,  and  are  corruptions  or  varia- 
tions of  the  same  name.  If  Thomas  Mayhew,  born  1591,  was  son  or  grand- 
son of  that  Petronel  Boscawen,  sister  of  Mrs.  Peter  Coffin,  who  married 
Peter  Mayhowe,  as  mentioned  in  Collins,  Mayhew  would  have  been  kins- 
man of  Tristram  not  remote.  Whether  this  be  so  or  not,  Thomas  Mayhew, 
having  procured  for  himself  and  son,  in  1641,  from  I^ord  Sterling  and  Sir 
Ferdinando  Gorges,  conveyances  of  both  the  islands,  Martha's  Vineyard 
and  Nantucket,  eighteen  years  later  (July  2,  1659)  conveyed  Nantucket  to 
Tristram  Coffin  and  his  associates,  reserving  about  a  tenth  part  for  himself. 
He  sent  Peter  Folger,  grandfather  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  who  had  come 
with  him  from  Watertown,  and  was  familiar  with  the  Indian  languages,  with 
Tristram  to  explore.  Tristram,  soon  after  reaching  Nantucket,  purchased 
of  Potinot,  an  Indian  sagamore,  the  island  of  Tuckernuck,  at  its  westerly 
end,  containing  a  thousand  acres. 

Whether  James  Coffin  came  with  his  father,  Tristram,  at  that  time,  or 
later  in  the  fall  with  Thomas  Macy,  Edv^ard  Starbuck,  and  Isaac  Colman, 
after  his  father's  return  to  Salisbury,  is  not  clear,  but  James  remained  through 
the  winter  on  the  island  as  they  did.  May  10,  1660,  the  sachems  of  Nan- 
tucket conveyed  to  the  associates  for  ^80  a  large  part  of  the  island,^Peter  [ 
Folger  being  witness. 


j'-m 


!:!! 


i;ii 
:i!|!i 


ADMIRAI    SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


dl 


IV. 

NANTUCKET. 

Early  in  1660,  Tristram,  with  his  family,  came  to  Nantucket.  Possibly 
some  delay  took  place,  as  regarded  them,  in  providing  habitations.  It  was 
not  long,  however,  before  enough  of  the  settlers  and  their  families  had  ar- 
rived for  their  security  and  to  plant  their  crops.  Besides  Tuckernuck,  the 
Coffins  had  thus  a  quarter  of  the  island,  and  much  more  in  the  sequel  be- 
came theirs.  Tristram  took  the  lead  from  the  first  among  the  settlers,  and 
was  frequently  selected  to  transact  important  public  business.  His  letters 
to  the  colonial  government  of  New  York,  of  which  province  Nantucket 
was  then  a  dependency,  are  preserved  in  the  archives  of  the  Department 
of  State  at  Albany. 

Although  from  the  earliest  settlement  regarded  as  their  leader  and  head 
by  his  associates,  his  first  appointment  by  the  Governor  at  Albany  as 
chief  magistrate  of  Nantucket  was  as  early  as  1671.  Thomas  Mayhew 
held  the  like  office  at  the  Vineyard.  These  officials,  with  two  assistants 
from  each  island,  constituted  a  general  court,  with  appellate  jurisdiction 
over  both.  This  court  sat  in  each  island  alternately,  its  chief  magistrate 
presiding.  In  1677  he  succeeded  Thomas  Macy  as  the  chief,  and  we  find 
on  the  records  of  Nantucket  an  official  oath  of  his,  which  reads  as  follows  : 

"  Whereas  I,  Tristram  Coffin  Senior,  have  received  a  commission  dated 
the  16"*  of  September  1677  investing  me  with  power  to  be  Chief  Magis- 
trate on  the  Island  of  Nantucket  and  its  dependencies  for  the  four  years 
ensuing,  under  further  order,  I,  Tristram  Coffin  aforesaid  do  engage  my- 
self under  the  penalty  of  perjury  to  do  justice  in  all  causes  that  come  be- 
fore me  according  to  law,  and  endeavor  to  my  best  understanding,  and 

hereunto  I  have  subscribed —  " 

Tristram  Coffin 

Subscribed  before  Chief  Magistrate. 

his  son  Peter. 

William,  John  ' 

and  Stephen 

being  his  b(       men. 

Exemplary  in  his  own  habits,  Tristram  respected  the  rights  of  other 


^ 


THE  LIFE  Ot 


llHllia 


ill! 
l\  ill    il> 


men  to  regulate  their  lives  according  to  the  dictates  of  their  own  con- 
sciences, where  not  conflicting  with  the  law.  When  in  the  inn  he  had  es- 
tablished by  the  Merrimack,  for  the  convenience  of  travellers  over  the 
ferry,  complaint  was  made  that  threepence  was  charged  the  quart  for 
beer  instead  of  two  as  stipulated  in  the  license,  which  required  four  bushels 
of  malt  to  the  hogshead,  his  wife,  through  the  brewer,  proving  that  she  put 
in  six  bushels,  it  was  dismissed.  At  Nantucket,  where  there  were,  accord- 
ing to  tradition,  two  or  three  thousand  Indians,  under  their  several  saga- 
mores, their  proclivity  to  stronger  beverages  degrading  and  brutalizing,  led 
to  frequent  disputes  among  themselves,  and  aggressions  upon  the  settlers, 
then  a  mere  handful  compared  with  their  own  numbers.  The  court  records 
are  largely  occupied  with  the  trials  and  sentences  of  Indians  to  be  whipped 
for  intemperance,  or  for  offences  growing  out  of  it.  Repressive  laws,  one 
drawn  up  by  Tristram,  were  not  without  effect.  Thomas  Macy,  in  a  letter 
in  1776  to  Governor  Lovelace,  at  Albany,  states  that  they  had  been  at- 
tended with  good  results.  That  same  year  John  Gardner,  whose  grave- 
stone is  that  of  the  earliest  date  remaining,  complains  to  Dudley  that  his 
own  stock  had  been  seized  by  Macy,  and  says  that  the  sachems  declare 
they  will  fight  if  the  law  is  enforced. 

The  manifest  improvement  in  the  habits  both  of  the  red  man  and  the 
white  was  no  doubt  due  in  a  large  measure  to  other  influences  than  the 
severities  of  the  law.  Tristram,  as  the  wealthiest  of  the  proprietors,  used 
his  means  generously  for  the  common  advantage.  If  mills  to  grind  the 
corn,  harrows,  or  other  implements  of  agriculture  were  needed,  it  was  he 
who  furnished  them.  When  the  Indians  grew  restless  and  menacing,  he 
held  them  in  subjection  and  peace  in  such  manner  as  commanded  their 
respect.  He  employed  large  numbers  in  his  farming  operations,  and 
built  them  on  his  own  land  improved  wigwams.  Benjamin  Franklin  Fr 
ger,  one  of  the  best  and  latest  of  the  historians  of  the  island,  in  speakii.^ 
of  his  relations  to  the  Indians,  says  the  Christian  character  which  he  ex- 
hibited, and  which  he  practically  illustrated  in  all  the  various  circumstances 
and  conditions  of  the  infant  colony,  is  analogous  to  that  which  subse- 
quently distinguished  the  founder  of  Pennsylvania,  so  that  the  spirit  of  one 
seemed  but  the  counterpart  of  the  other. 

He  had  had  his  trials,  but  bore  them  with  courage  and  humility.  One 
has  been  remembered,  which  caused  him  much  annoyance  and  loss.  It 
grew  out  of  an  official  act  which  forced  him  to  sacrifice  his  property,  and 
was  one  of  omission  rather  than  commission.  A  ship  was  wrecked  on 
Nantucket  shoals,  in  September,  1678,  loaded  with  hides,  and  the  chief 
magistrate  allowed  the  inhabitants  to  save  the  wreckage.     Portions  of  the  | 


•^m 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC   COFFIN,  BART. 


23 


cargo  and  rigging  were  embezzled.  A  Court  of  Admiralty  held  the  chief 
magistrate  responsible,  and  the  parties  who  had  derived  the  benefit  of 
wrecking  the  vessel  refusing  to  bear  any  part  of  the  fine,  the  burden  fell 
upon  Tristram  Coffyn  alone.  His  own  testimony  in  the  case  seems  to 
have  been  all  the  evidence  against  him  upon  which  the  decision  was  made 
up.  No  one  of  his  descendants  will  read  the  story,  as  officially  recorded, 
without  a  feeling  of  pride  that  their  great  ancestor,  under  a  most  distress- 
ing ordeal,  in  which  both  his  fortune  and  his  honor  were  at  stake,  saved 
his  honor.  And  the  Governor  of  New  York  discharged  him  from  the 
award  of  the  Admiralty  upon  his  representation. 

Through  these  documents,  preserved  for  more  than  two  centuries,  we 
get  a  glimpse  of  the  spirit  of  the  times  which  our  Nantucket  ancestors 
impressed  with  their  own  personality.  And,  while  the  first  settlers  were 
not  all  agreed  upon  the  subjects  of  public  policy  which  subsequently 
entered  into  the  political  concerns  of  the  island,  and  while  their  dissen- 
sions oftentimes  assumed  a  degree  of  acrimony  and  vindictiveness  painful 
to  reflect  upon,  they  were  very  generally  men  of  sturdy  character  and 
heroic  lives.  Looking  back  through  the  dim  vista  of  two  hundred  years, 
we  shall  behold  a  galaxy  of  names  illumined  by  high  resolves — names  that 
have  not  tarnished  v.ith  time,  nor  faded  from  the  world  with  the  friction  of 
the  centuries — names  that  were  not  born  to  die.  We  shall  see  engraven 
high  up  on  the  world's  escutcheon  the  names  of  Macy,  Starbuck,  Folger, 
Gardner,  Swain,  Hussey,  Coleman,  Barnard ;  and  then,  still  higher  up, 
resplendent  with  innumerable  descending  rays  of  light  and  love  and  Chris- 
tian sympathy,  extending  throughout  the  broad  universe,  we  shall  see  the 
name  of  Tristram  Coffyn. 

In  1661  Tristram  lost  his  mother,  Joanna  Thember,  who  died  in  Bos- 
ton at  the  age  (1584-1661)  of  seventy-seven.  His  daughter  Elizabeth, 
born  in  England,  1634,  died  at  the  age  of  forty-four,  the  wife  of  Stephen 
Greenleaf. 

The  very  admirable  Mary  Coffin,  born  at  Haverhill,  in  1644,  married 
soon  after  their  arrival  at  Nantucket,  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  Nathaniel,  son 
of  Edward  Starbuck.  Their  daughter  Mary  was  the  first  European  child  born 
on  the  island.  Tristram  gave  them  two  hundred  acres,  near  half  his  own  al- 
lotment, at  Capaum  Pond,  and  there  they  resided  near  him  about  twenty 
years,  till  his  death.  Of  noble  character  and  disposition,  superior  powers, 
and  extended  influence,  Mary  was  peerless  in  aU  the  graces  of  woman- 
hood, and  also  an  eloquent  preacher  among  the  Quakers.  Her  husband  was 
every  way  a  fitting  companion  for  one  so  gifted  and  admirable.  Their 
daily  associations  with  Tristram  and  his  wife,  Dionis,  must  have  been  a 


24 


THE  LIFE  OF 


11:! 


Illllli 


11 

■'I 

I' 


mutual  ad  vantage  and  solace  to  them.     She  died  in  171 7,  at  the  age  of 
seventy-two,  her  husband  two  years  later,  at  eighty-three. 

As  Tristram  began  to  feel  '•  the  symptoms  of  a  strong  man  failing,"  a 
phrase  used  by  Sir  Walter  Scott  in  reply  to  an  inquiry  as  to  his  own  health, 
made  in  the  presence  of  the  writer,  he  disposed  of  his  estate,  not  by  formal 
testament,  but  by  deeds,  the  consideration  always  being  his  regard  and 
natural  affection.  He  had  made  large  provision  for  his  daughter,  Mary 
Starbuck,  and  provided  homes  for  those  of  his  other  children  who  needed 
his  aid ;  he  now  conveyed  most  of  what  remained  to  his  two  youngest 
sons,  John  and  Stephen,  to  take  after  the  decease  of  himself  and  wife. 
In  this  he  followed  an  ancient  practice  in  England  before  wills  were  much 
in  use — disposing  of  his  estate  while  he  lived,  reserving  the  use  for  life. 
In  the  earlier  English  conveyancing  the  owner  released  to  the  crown, 
holding  the  eminent  demesne,  a  new  grant  being  then  issued  to  the  new 
feoffee  specifying  the  terms  and  conditions  previously  agreed. 


I'll 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


as 


V. 


TRISTRAM'S   DEATH    AND    DESCENDANTS 


'J 


><  , 


Tristram  lived  out  his  four  years  as  Chief  Magistrate,  and  as  his  term 
reached  its  close,  his  venerable  form  was  borne  from  his  home  near  Capaum 
Pond  to  the  graveyard,  half  a  mile  away  on  the  ridge.  The  actual  spot 
can  no  longer  be  identified.  The  earliest  stone  remaining,  that  of  John 
Gardner,  dates  twenty-five  years  later.  Tradition  points  out  a  depression 
in  the  ground  where  is  said  to  have  stood  Tristram's  dwelling,  another 
where  once  existed  the  Quaker  meeting-house  j  but  all  around  has  been 
long  since  abandoned  for  human  habitations. 

We  can  easily  conjure  up  that  throng  of  noble  men  and  women,  devout 
and  sad,  his  sons  and  daughters,  their  children,  friends,  and  kinsfolk,  who 
accompanied  his  remains  to  their  last  resting-place.  But  Tristram  needs 
no  monument  to  perpetuate  his  memory.  The  thousands  and  tens  of  thou- 
sands who  look  back  with  pride  and  affection  to  him,  their  honored  progen- 
itor, multiplying  with  their  generations,  will  keep  in  perennial  bloom  the 
fragrance  of  his  active  and  useful  life,  of  his  traits  and  works. 

He  had  had  manifold  blessings.  His  mother,  Joanna ;  his  wife,  Dionis ; 
his  sisters,  who  came  over  with  him  from  Devon,  Eunice,  Mrs.  William 
Butler,  Mary,  Mrs.  Alexander  Adams,  were  in  every  way  excellent  and 
devoted.  Mary,  his  seventh  child,  born  in  Haverhill  in  1645,  for  nearly 
twenty  years  after  her  marriage,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  to  Nathaniel,  the 
son  of  Edward  Starbuck  and  Catharine  Reynolds,  was  his  near  neighbor 
and  constant  companion.  Mr.  Allen  CoflUn  justly  describes  her,  in  his 
life  of  Tristram,  when  he  thus  speaks  of  her : 

"  She  was  a  most  extraordinary  woman,  participating  in  the  practical 
duties  and  responsibilities  of  public  gatherings  and  town  meetings,  on 
which  occasions  her  words  were  always  listened  to  with  marked  respect. 
The  genius  of  whatever  attaches  to  the  Equal  Rights  for  Women  move- 
ment of  the  present  day,  in  every  true  and  proper  sense,  she  anticipated 
by  two  centuries,  and  reduced  to  practice  without  neglecting  her  domestic 
relations.  She  was  consulted  upon  all  matters  of  public  importance,  be* 
cause  her  judgment  was  superior,  and  she  was  universally  acknowledged  to 
be  a  great  woman.    It  was  not  that  her  husband,  Nathaniel  Starbuck,  was 


i 


rTTT 


i  1    :|iii 


26 


THE  LIFE  OF 


'  'ili 


\m 


':■  ■  .;ii 


a  man  of  inferior  mould  tnat  she  gained  such  prominence,  for  he  was  a 
man  of  good  ability  ;  but  because  of  her  pre-eminent  qualifications  that 
she  acquired  so  good  a  reputation,  w  hereby  her  husband's  qualifications 
were  apparently  lessened.  In  the  language  of  John  Richardson,  an  early 
preacher,  '  The  islanders  esteemed  her  as  a  judge  among  them,  for  little 
of  moment  was  clone  without  her.'  In  the  town  meetings,  which  she  was 
accustomed  to  ai  id,  she  took  an  active  part  in  the  debates,  usually  com- 
mencing her  address  with,  *  My  husband  thinks '  so  and  so ;  or,  '  My 
husband  and  I,  having  considered  the  subject,  think'  so  and  so.  From 
every  source  of  information,  as  also  from  tradition,  there  is  abundant  evi- 
dence that  she  was  possessed  of  sound  judgment,  clear  understanding,  and 
an  elegant  way  of  expressing  herself,  perfectly  easy  and  natural  to  her. 

"  At  the  age  of  fifty-six,  she  became  interested  in  the  religious  faith  of 
the  Quakers,  or  Friends,  and  took  the  spiritual  concerns  of  the  whole 
island  under  her  special  superintendence.  She  held  meetings  at  her  own 
house,  which  are  often  alluded  to  by  visiting  Friends  who  have  written  con- 
cerning the  island's  early  religious  history  ;  wrote  the  quarterly  epistles,  and 
preached  in  a  most  eloque.it  and  impressive  manner ;  and,  withal,  was  as 
distinguished  in  her  domestic  economy  as  slie  was  celebrated  as  a  preacher. 
Of  this  department,  John  Richardson,  who  preached  at  her  house,  wrote : 
*  The  order  of  the  house  was  such  in  all  the  parts  thereof  as  I  had  not 
seen  the  like  before ;  the  large  and  bright-rubbed  room  was  set  with  suit- 
able seats  or  chairs  for  a  meeting,  so  that  I  did  not  see  anything  wanting 
according  to  place,  but  something  to  stand  on,  for  I  was  not  free  to  set  my 
feet  upon  the  fine  cane  chair,  lest  1  should  break  it.'  Enough  might  be 
written  concerning  her  to  make  an  entertaining  volume  by  itself,  which 
may  some  time  be  attempted." 

Hon.  Peter  Coffin,  the  oldest  child  of  Tristram,  born  at  Brixton  in 
1 63 1,  married  Abigail,  daughter  of  Edward  and  Catharine  Starbuck,  of 
Dover,  N.  H.,  afterward  of  Nantucket.  Peter  was  one  of  the  original  pur- 
chasers of  Nantucket,  and  tradition  says  the  wealthiest  of  them,  owning 
large  mill  property.  He  was  a  merchant  at  Dover  before  the  purchase, 
and  subsequently  lived  at  Nantucket,  but  only  for  a  short  time  to  be  con- 
sidered as  domiciled  there.  He  was  made  freeman  in  1666  at  Dover,  a 
lieutenant  in  1675  on  service  in  King  Philip's  Indian  War,  a  representa- 
tive in  the  Legislative  branch  in  1672-73,  and  again  in  1679.  In  1690  he 
removed  to  Exeter,  N.  H.  From  1692  to  17 14  he  was  at  different  times 
associate  justice  and  chief-justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  a  member  of  the  Governor's  Council.  He  died  at  Exeter, 
Mardi  21,  I7i5»  but  most  of  his  life  was  passed  at  Dover. 


Mir  i 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,   BART. 


n 


His  second  child,  called  the  younger  Tristram,  was  born  in  England  in 
1632.  He  married  in  Newbury,  Mass.,  March  2,  1652,  Judith  Somerby, 
widow  of  Henry,  and  daughter  of  Edmund  and  Sarah  Greenleaf.  She  was 
born  in  1625,  and  died  in  Newbury,  December  15,  1705.  He  was  made 
freeman  April  29,  1668,  and  died  in  Newbury,  Februa.y  4,  1704,  aged  sev- 
enty-two, leaving  one  hundred  and  seventy-seven  des^  endants.  He  was  a 
merchant  tailor,  and  filled  many  positions  of  trust  and  honor  in  Newbury. 
The  early  records  of  Newbury  bear  evidence  of  his  identity  with  the  interests 
of  that  town.  In  the  severe  ecclesiastical  contest  concerning  Rev.  Thomas 
Parker,  of  Newbury,  Tristram  Coffin,  Jr.,  bore  a  conspicuous  part  in  the 
interest  of  Mr.  Parker,  of  whose  First  Church  of  Newbury  he  was  deacon 
for  twenty  years. 

This  Tristram  built,  about  1654,  according  to  the  able  historian  of 
Newbury,  the  old  Coffin  mansion,  which  has  remained  in  the  family  to 
the  present  day ;  one  of  the  ninth  generation  born  under  its  ample  roof, 
Miss  Anna  I.  Coffin,  now  occupying  it.  It  is  said  to  have  been  built  in 
1649  by  Henry  Somerby,  whose  widow,  it  will  be  remembered,  Tristram 
Coffin,  Jr.,  married.  It  is  one  of  the  few  old  houses  left,  and  is  built 
around  a  vast^chimney-stack,  with  spacious  fire-places,  with  windows  large 
and  small,  opening  in  pleasant  surprises,  some  on  closets  and  some  on 
staircases,  and  with  walls  that,  when  stripped  of  their  papering  not  many 
years  ago  for  the  purpose  of  repapering,  were  found  to  display  such  elegant 
landscape  frescos,  with  artistic  designs  of  figures  and  foliage,  as  were  wont 
to  decorate  fine  residences  in  the  days  of  the  Stuarts.  It  is  a  matter  Oi 
tradition  that  Tristram  CoiTyn,  Sr.,  lived  in  this  mansion  a  short  time  be- 
fore his  final  removal  to  Nantucket. 

.  Two  monuments  in  the  graveyard  of  the  first  parish  of  Newbnry,  bear 
these  several  inscriptions,  with  epitaphs  in  verse  : 

"  To  the  memory  of  Tristram  Coffin,  Esq.,  who  having  served  the  First 
Church  of  Newbury  in  the  office  of  a  deacon  for  twenty  years,  died  Febru 
ary  4,  1 703-4,  aged  seventy-two  years." 

•'  To  the  memory  of  Mrs.  Judith,  late  virtuous  wife  of  Deacon  Tris- 
tram Coffin,  Esq.,  who  having  lived  to  see  177  of  her  children,  and  chil- 
di'n's  children,  to  the  third  generation,  died  December  15,  1705,  aged 
eighty." 

If  sandy  and  not  very  responsive  to  the  plough,  Nantucket  has  been 
ever  famous  for  its  flocks  and  herds.  Its  most  abundant  harvests  were 
nevertheless  from  the  ocean.  Even  before  Tristram  passed  away,  "  Lost 
at  Sea  "  was  a  frequent  epitaph  for  its  dauntless  mariners.  They  possessed 
many  ships  of  their  own  ;  sailed  many  from  other  places. 


f:1 


28 


THE  LIFE  OF 


m 


':;,lil!M 


i-i  i 


;i;l 


In  his  well-known  burst  of  eloquence  in  Parliament,  Burke,  in  1774, 
pays  just  tribute  : 

•*  Look  at  the  manner  in  which  the  New  England  people  carry  on  the 
whale  fishery.  While  we  follow  them  among  the  tumbling  mountains  of 
ice,  and  behold  them  penetrating  into  the  deepest  frozen  recesses  of  Hud- 
son Bay  and  Davis  Strait,  while  we  are  looking  for  them  beneath  the 
Arctic  Circle,  we  hear  that  they  have  pierced  into  the  opposite  region  of 
polar  cold  ;  that  they  are  at  the  antipodes,  and  engaged  under  the  frozen 
serpent  of  the  South.  Falkland  Islands,  which  seem  too  remote  and  too 
romantic  an  object  for  the  grasp  of  national  ambition,  is  but  a  stage  and 
resting-place  for  their  victorious  industry.  Nor  is  the  equinoctial  heat 
more  discouraging  to  them  than  the  accumulated  winter  of  both  the  poles. 
We  learn  that  while  some  of  them  draw  the  line  or  strike  the  harpoon  on 
the  coast  of  Africa,  others  run  the  longitude  and  pursue  their  gigantic  game 
along  the  coast  of  Brazil." 

Their  gigantic  game  has  been  almost  exterminated,  as  the  buffaloes  on 
the  prairie.  Other  ports  have  attracted  their  trade,  and  the  population  is 
now  but  one-half  of  what  it  was  in  its  palmiest  prosperity.  But  its  children 
are  not  degenerate,  though  forced  to  seek  other  fields  for  their  victorious 
industry.  Everywhere  are  to  be  found  accomplished  ship-masters  of  its 
familiar  names.  William  Coffin,  who  first  settled  in  Boston,  as  his  father 
Nathaniel,  who  died  in  Nantucket  (1721)  at  the  age  of  fifty-five,  traversed 
the  sea  in  command  of  vessels.  The  proximity  of  their  ancestral  home  in 
Devon  to  the  shores  may  have  implanted  in  their  blood  tastes  and  aptitudes 
for  maritime  adventure,  which  gained  strength  as  they  found  wider  employ- 
ment on  this  side  the  Atlantic. 

Gardners,  Macys,  Bunkers,  no  less  than  the  Coffins,  thus  showed  the 
mettle  of  their  pasture.  Nor  was  the  invigorating  influences  of  its  climate, 
tempered  as  it  was  by  the  Gulf  Stream,  confined  to  its  vikings.  Daughters 
as  well  as  sons  of  Dorcas  and  Damaris  won  eminence  in  their  various  pur- 
suits. No  more  admirable  examples  of  womanhood  than  Mary  Coffin  and 
Dorcas  Starbuck  have  been  transmitted  for  emulation.  The  Quaker  faith, 
tried  by  persecution  among  the  Puritans,  found  elements  congenial  in  the 
pure,  salt  air,  as  in  the  anxieties  and  bereavements  that  attended  life  on  the 
sea.  Nor  did  they  grow  up  in  ignorance.  Refinements  from  ..ivilization 
beyond  the  Atlantic  had  become  their  inheritance  through  many  genera- 
tions. Tristram  Coffin,  Thomas  Mayhew,  John,  his  grandson,  from  the 
Vineyard,  these  mothers  in  Israel  themselves  exhorted  and  prayed.  Their 
simple  trust,  and  the  amiable  disposition  which  these  tenets  fostered, 
fruited  in  generous  deed  and  noble  trait.     We  must  all  remember  within 


I  i   .1  ! 


;'  iliii 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,   BART. 


our  own  experience  men  and  women,  even  when  separated  by  place  and 
circumstances  from  the  fold,  still  bearing  unmistakable  impress  of  their 
insular  home,  as  also  of  its  creed,  in  the  beauty  of  their  lives  and  well- 
regulated  character. 

In  such  a  healthy  climate,  surrounded  by  the  ocean,  leading  lives  of 
purity  and  peace,  dauntless  afloat,  industrious  ashore,  the  whole  globe 
with  its  waters  alike  by  their  voyages  made  familiar  to  their  ken,  it  is  no 
marvel  that  their  numbers  multiplied,  or  that  the  young  grew  up  in 
physical  perfection  to  transmit  their  precious  inheritance  of  health  and 
strength  and  comeliness,  of  character  and  intellectual  power,  not  only 
throughout  their  favored  island,  but  over  the  country  of  which  it  formed 
so  insignificant  a  part. 

It  needs  but  a  glance  at  the  precious  volume  of  the  CofUns,  Ewers, 
Folgers,  and  Gardners,  to  see  how  rapidly  multiplied  the  races  of  these 
early  settlers,  and  how  few  comparatively  were  the  prolific  possessors  of 
the  earth,  our  then  progenitors.  It  presents  for  study  a  somewhat  unusual 
example  of  intermarriages  on  so  small  a  scale  which  have  not  deteriorated 
the  stock. 

Among  these  was  Edward  Starbuck,  who  died  there,  1690,  at  the  age 
of  eighty-six.  His  son  Nathaniel,  who  married  Mary  Coffin,  sold  his 
brother-in-law,  Peter  Coffin,  l.\.  estate  at  Dover,  to  accompany  his  father. 
With  him  came  his  sister  Dorcas,  who  married  William  Gayer ;  and  their 
daughter,  Dorcas  Gayer,  in  the  course  of  events  married  their  cousin, 
Jethro  Starbuck ;  and  her  sister,  Damaris  Gayer,  Nathaniel  Coffin,  son  of 
James.  The  brother  of  William  Gayer,  Sir  John,*  who  died  17 10,  acquired 
a  large  fortune  in  Bombay,  which  he  divided  among  his  nephew  William, 
son  of  William,  and  among  his  nieces  Damaris  and  Dorcas.  Their  brother 
died  in  171 2,  in  Kent,  in  England,  after  marrying  his  cousin  Elisabeth. 
He  left  his  New  England  property  to  his  sisters  and  to  each  a  thousand 
pounds.  Peter  Folger,  in  1663,  moved  to  Nantucket,  and  his  youngest 
daughter,  Abiah,  and  Josiah  Franklin  were  the  parents  of  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin, Peter  Folger's  grandchild.  Peter  married  Judith,  daughter  of  Stephen 
Coffin,  and  the  intermarriages  between  the  descendants  of  the  early  pro- 
prietors of  the  island  soon  made  akin  all  its  inhabitants. 

Among  others  who  came  was  Richard  Gardner,  eldest  son  of  Thomas, 


*  In  London  there  is  said  still  to  exist  a  chapel  erected  by  Sir  John  Gayer,  Mayor  in  1649,  somewhat  hia- 
torical  from  the  stand  he  took  in  trying  times.  Sir  John  Gayer,  uncle  of  Mrs.  Nathaniel  Coffin,  left  fifteen 
thousand  pounds  for  the  nurture  and  education  of  students  for  the  ministry  in  London,  but  he  must  be  a 
generation  later  than  the  Mayor.  The  Mayor  was  from  South  Devon.  He  may  have  been  father  of  thia 
second  Sir  John,  and  William  the  father  of  Dorcas  and  Damaris,  Mrs.  Coffin,  and  Mrs.  Starbuck,  to  whom 
Sir  John,  of  Bombay,  left  considerable  estates. 


*>* 


t 


30 


THE  LIFE  OF 


who,  in  1624,  held  office  under  Conant  at  Cape  Ann.  William  Banker, 
1 650-1 7 1 2,  carried  to  Nantucket  by  his  mother,  Jane  Godfrey  (whose  first 
husband,  George,  was  drowned,  1658,  when  she  married  Richard  Swaine), 
married,  1669,  Mary,  daughter  of  Thomas  Macy.  Richard  Pinkham, 
of  Dover  ;  Thomas  Coleman,  who  had  come  out  with  Sir  Richard  Salton- 
stall,  1599-1682,  and  who  left  four  sons;  John  Sanborne,  of  Hampton, 
by  marriage,  1674,  with  Judith,  daughter  of  the  second  Tristram  Coffin,  be- 
came also  connected  with  the  island. 


nr'il 


l||!lli 


.  lit 

m 

i.'M 


4 


11  m 


:'lll! 


il  I II  HI  i  i 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,   BART. 


31 


VI. 

BOSTON   AND  ISAAC   COFFIN. 

From  Tristram's  third  son,  J.^tnes,  came  Sir  Isaac.  James  was  Judge 
of  the  Common  Pleas,  and  for  twelve  years  of  Probate,  and  when  forty 
years  later  he  passed  away,  at  the  age  of  eighty,  he  was  generally  loved 
and  respected.  By  his  wife  Mary,  daughter  of  John  Severance,  one  of  the 
earliest  settlers  of  Salisbury,  he  had  fourteen  children  wedded  with  six 
(lanlners,  with  Starbuclc,  two  Bunkers,  with  Macy,  Barnard,  Clark,  1721, 
and  Harker.  The  third  son,  Nathaniel,  1666-1721,  by  his  wife  Damaris, 
daughter  of  William  Gayer  and  Dorcas  Starbuck,  and  niece  of  Sir  John 
(layer,  had  four  sons  and  five  daughters.  William,  the  eldest  son  of  Na- 
thaniel, born  in  1691,  in  1722  married  Ann,  daughter  of  Francis  Holmes,  of 
Boston  and  South  Carolina.  This  event  brought  William,  grandfather  of  Sir 
Isaac,  to  Boston,  where  he  dwelt  in  honor  and  affluence  till  1774,  father 
and  grandfather  of  that  memorable  family  among  the  refugee  loyalists  who 
took,  some  may  think,  the  wrong  side  in  our  struggle  for  independence. 

When  William  Coffin,  upon  his  marriage  with  Ann  Holmes,  took  up  his 
abode  in  Boston,  the  place  had  become  a  centre  of  trade,  with  nearly 
twenty  thousand  inhabitants.  The  towns  along  the  shore  and  in  the  in- 
terior depended  upon  it  for  garments,  and,  in  part,  often  for  food.  It  was 
already  metropolitan  in  fashion  and  in  enlightenment.  William's  mother, 
Damaris  Gayer,  lived  on  at  Nantucket  till  1764,  reaching  the  great  age 
of  ninety,  universally  beloved.  She  had  derived  a  considerable  estate, 
as  related,  from  her  uncle,  her  father,  and  brother ;  but  she  had  nine  chil- 
dren to  provide  for.  By  his  own  prudence  and  good  sense,  and  from  his 
wife's  inheritance,  William  soon  acquired  a  competence.  He  joined  the 
Episcopal  Church,  and  held  the  position  for  several  years  of  senior 
I  warden  of  Trinity.  His  death  in  1774,  as  the  war  broke  out,  saved  him 
from  witnessing  the  exile  and  widespread  confiscation  that  awaited  his 
sons.  He  had  had  thirteen  children  of  his  own,  six  of  them  married,  who 
were  also  prolific.  His  children,  and  children's  children,  counted  up 
about  sixty  when  he  died,  about  the  same  number  as  his  great-grandfather 
Tristram's  at  his  death  a  century  before.  But  of  William's  descendants 
bearing  the  name  of  Coffin,  all  have  died  out  in  Massachusetts,  and  not 
many  remain  in  England,  Canada,  or  South  Carolina. 


t 


f 


?*.a 


K 


i 
'III 


32 


THE  LIFE  OF 


llil 


ii  a 


Nathaniel,  second  son  of  William  Coffin,  born  in  1727,  graduate7of 
Harvard  College,  1744,  received,  in  1750,  an  honorary  degree  at  Yale. 
Brought  up  a  merchant,  he  was  early  appointed  King's  Cashier  of  the 
Customs,  and  acquired  considerable  property.  His  wife  was  Elizabeth 
Barnes,  whom  he  married  in  1 748.  They  resided  near  the  corner  of  Essex 
Street  and  Rainsford  Lane,  in  Boston,  where  John  and  Sir  Isaac  were 
born.  The  tide  of  the  inner  harbor  washed  up  to  the  garden-walls. 
Near  by,  in  front,  stood  the  Liberty  tree,  on  the  main  street,  which 
Nathaniel,  the  oldest  brother  of  Sir  Isaac,  cut  down  in  1774.  John,  born 
1755,  after  winning  great  honors  by  his  courage  and  conduct  on  the  BritJjh 
side  in  the  American  Revolution,  in  its  Southern  campaigns  from  1 780  to 
the  peace,  died  the  oldest  general  in  the  British  Army  in  1838.  He  had 
three  sons  and  two  daughters,  and  his  descendant,  Captain  Henry  Coffin, 
of  the  British  Navy,  published,  as  we  have  related,  a  memoir  of  him  in 
1880.  One  other  brother  of  Sir  Isaac,  and  the  youngest,  Jonathan  Perry, 
was  a  barrister  of  repute  in  London.  His  sisters,  Elizabeth  and  Christian, 
died  in  1826,  unmarried. 

Their  sister,  Catherine,  first  married  Richard  Barweli,  of  Stansted,  dis- 
tinguished in  India,  where  three  of  his  sons  held  positions  of  dignity  and 
trust  on  the  bench,  in  the  treasury,  and  on  the  council  board.  Her 
second  husband  was  Edward  Miller  Mundy.  Catherine  Coffin  had  only 
one  child  by  Mr.  Mundy,  Admiral  George,  of  Holly  Bank,  Hants,  whose 
distinguished  career  in  the  naval  service  of  England  in  the  great  war  with 
Napi^leon  was  wise  and  brave,  and  gained  him  great  renown.  Ann 
married  Mr,  Kallbeck. 

Isaac,  the  subject  of  this  memoir,  third  son  of  Nathaniel,  born  in 
Boston  in  1759,  at  eight  years  of  age — in  1766 — entered  the  Boston  Latin 
School.  He  was  a  diligent  student  in  a  class  that  embraced  numerous 
celebrities,  and  when  in  Parliament  he  acknowledged  himself  indebted  to  | 
the  methods  and  discipline  of  the  Boston  schools  for  his  apt  classical  quo- 
tations, then  a  mode  much  in  vogue  in  that  august  assemblage.  His  rapid  j 
progress  and  attainments  in  nautical  science,  which  likewise  remain 
recorded,  may  have  been  in  some  measure  due  to  the  mental  training  of  j 
Master  Lovell  in  other  branches  of  learning. 

His  constitution  was,  however,  too  vigorous,  his  animal  spirits  tool 
buoyant  for  scholarship  alone  to  mark  his  schoolboy  days.     He  led  the 
sports  of  the  playground,  and  on  the  fifth  of  November,  the  anniversary 
of  the  gunpowder  plot,  was  more  than  once  selected  as  the  leader  of  the 
burlesque  solemnities  of  the  occasion,  which  was  left  to  the  boys  of  the  | 
town  for  fitting  commemoration. 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,   BART. 


33 


His  paternal  abode,  as  mentioned  near  the  corner  of  what  is  now  Har- 
rison Avenue,  at  the  then  south  end  of  the  town,  was  near  the  Common, 
and  in  the  frequent  battles  with  foot-  or  snowball,  or  with  fisticuffs,  his 
activity  and  strength  made  him  the  champion  of  his  party  of  Southenders, 
as  they  were  called. 

Boston  was  a  pleasant  place  to  dwell  in.  Its  hills,  from  which  it  de- 
rived one  of  its  names,  soon  abandoned,  rose  far  higher  up  above  the  sea, 
which  then  encompassed  the  thousand  acres  of  land  constituting  its  area. 
For  comfort,  security,  or  easy  access  to  the  harbor,  the  mass  of  its  popula- 
tion clustered  about  the  wharves  or  centres  of  trade.  Broad  stretches 
of  tree  or  turf,  sloping  pastures,  and  blooming  gardens  surrounded  the 
stately  abodes  of  the  wealthy.  Tide-waters,  fresh  from  the  ocean,  spread 
nearly  around  the  peninsula.  Beyond  these  basins  wooded  heights  of 
considerable  elevation  lifted  themselves  above  the  boundless  tree-tops, 
delighting  the  beholder  with  their  graceful  proportions.  For  fishing  or 
shooting,  rowing,  sailing  or  swimming,  coasting  or  skating,  Boston  and  its 
environs  of  lakes  and  orchards  was  then  the  paradise  for  boys.  It  was  a 
capital  school  for  his  play-hours,  and  the  old  Latin,  the  oldest  school 
in  the  country,  dating  from  1635,  for  his  studies  of  a  graver  sort.  There 
fifteen  of  his  cousins  were  his  schoolmates,  a  host  of  our  own  celebrities, 
and  four — Sheaffe,  Morland,  Mackay,  and  Ochterlony — who  became  baro- 
nets or  generals  by  military  service,  at  what  was  then  called  home.  He 
was  well  placed  for  development,  nor  were  his  opportunities  neglected. 

As  he  grew  in  wisdom  and  stature,  the  ingratitude  of  king  and  parlia- 
ment for  the  services  which  had  added  Canada  to  the  realm  created  dis- 
I  content  and  disaffection.     The  settled  policy  of  the  ministry  to  subject 
the  colonies  to  arbitrary  rule,  to  exactions,  violating  the  spirit  and  letter 
of  their  charters,  sacrificing  their  industries  for  the  benefit  of  merchants 
and  manufacturers  at  home,  provoked  resentment,  led  to  eventual  resist- 
ance and   separation.     Commercial  places,  wealthy  and  intelligent,  ex- 
pressed displeasure  through  the  press,  in  caucus,  and  halls  of  legislation. 
Conversation  and  correspondence  aroused  the  people  to  a  sense  of  their 
wrongs,  and  sought  to  awaken  England  to  the  danger  of  losing  so  important 
a  part  of  her  dominions.    Many,  convinced  independence  must  come  sooner 
or  later,  inflamed  the  popular  passions  to  bring  it  about.     Others,  with 
I  more  to  risk,  no  less  determined  in  claiming  their  rights  as  British  sul> 
Ijects,  were  yet  hardly  prepared  to  •■ever  ties  sacred  from  so  many  associa^ 
jtions.     They  loved  the  country  of  their  ancestors,  took  pride  in  its  history, 
I  and  would  have  gladly  averted  the  impending  calamity. 

Loyalists  and  patriots  alike,  prompted  by  honorable  motives,  grew 
3 


\  m 


34 


THE  LIFE  OF 


warm  as  they  discussed  the  situation  wherever  men  congregated.  They 
were  all  the  more  wedded  to  their  own  several  opinions  bv  the  heat  and 
temper  such  discussion  engendered.  Liberty  boys  from  the  Green  Drag- 
on, merchants  and  officials  who  addressed  Governor  Gage,  represented 
the  extreme  views.  But  events  hurried  them  on.  The  Stamp  Act,  too 
late  and  too  grudgingly  repealed,  left  its  canker.  The  burning  of  Hutch- 
inson's costly  books  and  mansion,  citizens  massacred  by  British  troops, 
the  tea  thrown  into  the  ocean,  the  Boston  Port  Bill  that  closed  our  harbor 
to  navigation,  kept  at  fever-heat  the  irritation,  till  twenty  thousand  of  the 
bone  and  sinew  of  the  land,  from  their  encampments  on  its  neighboring 
hills,  beleagured  the  British  fleet  and  garrison ;  who,  after  another  year, 
were  forced  by  Washington  to  withdraw  to  Halifax.  Three  thousand  of 
the  inhabitants  went  with  them,  preferring  exile  and  impoverishment  to 
giving  up  their  allegiance.  A  few  months  later  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence at  Philadelphia  shut  with  an  ominous  clang  the  door  against  all 
possibilities  of  reconciliation. 

The  Boston  Coffins  were  all  loyal  to  England.  Isaac's  father  held  the 
most  lucrative  post  there  under  the  crown.  Their  acquaintances  and 
friends  were  naturally  more  among  the  British  officers  sent  to  subjugate, 
than  among  those  conspiring  to  cast  off  the  yoke.  They  had  much  to  lose 
if  they  swerved  from  their  fealty  to  the  mother  country.  All  this  they  sacri- 
ficed without  hesitation  for  what  they  considered  their  obligations.  Men 
act  from  mingled  motives  ;  but  now  that  no  object  is  to  be  answered  by 
depreciating  the  loyalists,  it  seems  as  unreasonable  to  condemn  them  as  it 
would  be  Roundhead  or  Cavalier.  Isaac  was  too  young  in  the  earliest 
stages  of  the  turmoil  to  realize  what  it  meant,  but  long  before  he  entered, 
at  the  age  of  fourteen,  the  British  navy,  he  no  doubt  had  formed  opin- 
ions of  his  own.  It  was  doubtless  of  advantage  to  him,  quickening  his 
faculties  and  maturing  his  character,  that  such  events  were  transpiring 
about  him  at  this  plastic  period.  His  sense  of  justice  and  right,  and  of  { 
what  freedom  signified,  proved  in  his  subsequent  career  that  these  advan- 
tages had  not  been  without  effect. 

His  uncles  and  their  sons  were  all  of  one  mind  for  the  crown.  The 
daughters  of  the  house  sided  with  their  husbands,  some  of  whom  remained 
neutral  or  went  with  the  patriots.  They  were  strong  in  numbers  and  near 
neighbors.  Along  the  principal  thoroughfare,  its  several  portions  nowj 
merged  into  Washington  Street,  dwelt  twenty  families  descended  from 
William  Coffin,  or  their  near  kinsfolk,  who  lived  in  constant  intercourse. 
The  patriarch,  at  fourscore,  his  vigor  hardly  abated,  lived  on  the  main  street, 
near  Isaac's  home.    His  daughter  Elizabeth  had  married  her  cousin,  my  own 


!i  ''rS 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


35 


progenitor  and  namesake,  who  had  bought  the  house  opposite  her  father's, 
at  the  corner  of  HoUis  Street,  built  by  Governor  Belcher  for  his  own  use 
not  long  before  he  went  to  New  Jersey  as  governor  of  that  province.  Mrs. 
Amory,  her  own  aunt,  and  the  widow  of  her  husband's  father,  lived  farther 
south  on  the  same  street.  Her  tombstone,  marked  with  her  name,  lays  in 
the  Granary  Burial  Gfound,  near  Park  Street  corner,  the  inscription  easily 
read  through  the  open  iron  fence  surmounting  the  wall. 

Opposite  the  fence,  farther  north,  at  the  corner  of  Bromfield's  Lane, 
where  now  stands  Horticultural  Hall,  lived  another  aunt  of  Isaac,  Mrs. 
Gilbert  Deblois,  who,  if  somewhat  domineering  even  for  a  Coffir  liked  to 
be  hospitable.  Her  boys  went  also  to  the  Latin  school  near  by.  Her 
cake  and  fruit  were  not  wasted,  but  served  to  rejoice  at  lunch  their  healthy 
appetites.  She  was  less  considerate  of  her  pretty  daughter,  Bessie,  who, 
about  the  age  of  Isaac,  early  became  attached  to  one  every  way  worthy, 
and  whose  name  in  his  own  and  two  subsequent  generations  has  been  held 
in  high  estimation.  Why  the  mother  interfered,  and  forbade  the  banns  in 
open  church,  locked  up  her  daughter,  whom  she  seized  upon  in  the  act  of 
eloping  with  her  lover,  can  only  be  explained  by  her  love  of  domination. 
Neither  herself  nor  Bessie  could  have  favored  the  suit  of  Arnold,  then  cov- 
ered with  laurels  from  Saratoga,  later  dishonored,  who  was  also  captivated 
by  her  beauty.  Bessie  remained  single,  watching  with  filial  tenderness  over 
the  declining  years  of  her  mother,  who  had  thus  cruelly  thwarted  her  own 
prospects  of  a  happy  life.  She  lived  on,  for  the  most  part  in  the  same  dwell- 
ing,  retaining  her  grace  and  loveliness  till  she  died,  having  lived  to  beyond 
fourscore,  beloved  and  esteemed  by  a  large  circle  of  acquaintances,  friends, 
and  kinsfolk. 

Not  far  from  the  school,  on  the  Main  Street,  near  the  Province  House, 
lived  his  Uncle  William,  whose  wife  was  the  daughter  of  Thomas  Aston, 
and  who  had  a  large  family  of  sons  and  daughters.  On  State,  then  King 
Street,  opposite  the  scene  of  the  Boston  massacre,  resided  Mr.  Edward 
Payne,  who,  disturbed  at  whist  by  the  turmoil,  and  hastening,  with  his 
cards  in  his  hand,  to  the  door  to  see  what  it  meant,  had  his  arm  shattered 
by  a  ball.  On  what  is  now  Bowdoin  Square,  with  large  gardens  about  it, 
was  the  residence  of  Mr.  Newell,  Chairman  of  the  Selectmen  during  the 
war,  who  had  married  a  sister  of  Mrs.  Payne,  and  they  were  kinswomen  of 
Isaac.  John  and  Eben,  his  uncles,  had  their  homes  near  by  his  own, 
swarming  with  children  with  those  best  blessings  of  Providence — ^good 
spirits  and  temper,  health,  and  comeliness.  They  lived  near  che  Common. 
These  many  doors  opened  gladly  to  welcome  one  so  cheery  and  spirited 
as  our  subjects 


•Mi 


36 


THE  LIFE  OF 


VII. 


ISAAC   AT   SEA. 


Living  surrounded  by  the  sea,  sailing  on  its  bays  and  harbors,  and 
haunting  its  wharves  and  ships,  Isaac's  tastes  for  maritime  pursuits  early  de- 
veloped. At  the  age  of  fourteen  he  entered  the  Royal  Navy  under  the  aus- 
pices of  Rear-Admiral  John  Montague.  By  him  he  was  confided  to  the 
care  of  Lieutenant  William  Hunter,  at  that  period  commanding  the  brig 
Gaspee,  and  who  thus  spoke  of  his  pupil : 

"  Of  all  the  young  men  I  ever  had  the  car;  of,  none  answered  my  ex- 
pectations equal  to  Isaac  Coffin.  He  pleased  me  so  much  that  I  took  all 
the  pains  in  my  power  to  make  him  a  good  seaman ;  and  I  succeeded  to 
the  height  of  my  wishes ;  for  never  did  I  know  a  young  man  acquire  so 
much  nautical  knowledge  in  so  short  a  time.  But  when  he  became  of  use 
to  me,  the  Admiral  thought  proper  to  remove  him.  We  parted  with  con- 
siderable regret." 

Mr.  Coffin,  after  quitting  the  Gaspee,  served  as  midshipman  succes- 
sively on  board  the  Captain,  Kingfisher,  lowey,  and  Diligent,  on  the 
Halifax  Station  ;  from  the  latter  vessel  he  was  removed  into  the  Romney, 
of  fifty  guns,  bearing  the  flag  of  his  patron  at  Newfoundland,  and  in  the 
summer  of  1778  he  obtained  a  lieutenancy  and  the  command  of  the  Pla- 
centia  cutter.  In  the  following  spring  he  served  as  a  volunteer  on  board 
the  Sybil  frigate.  Captain  Pasley,  and  was  soon  after  appointed  to  the 
command  of  Le  Pincon,  an  armed  ship.  On  this  vessel,  owing  to  the 
negligence  of  the  sailing  master  who  had  charge  of  her,  he  had  the  misfor- 
tune to  be  wrecked  on  the  coast  of  Labrador ;  upon  which  he  returned  to 
St.  John's,  where  he  was  tried  by  a  court  martial  and  fully  acquitted,  his 
conduct  being  considered  that  of  an  able  officer  and  seaman  wholly  free 
from  blame. 

By  following  such  traces  as  the  naval  histories  of  Great  Britain  afford 
of  these  several  ships,  we  can  reasonably  conjecture  the  part  Coffin  took 
in  our  Revolutionary  War.  We  learn  what  duties  were  performed  by  each 
of  them,  and  we  have  no  reason  to  doubt,  from  his  rapid  promotion,  of  his 
efficiency  and  zeal.  We  know  that  his  patron.  Admiral  Montague,  pro- 
tected the  rear  of  Howe's  retreat  from  Boston,  in  1776,  that  the  ships  to 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


37 


which  he  belonged  were  often  engaged  with  the  enemy,  and  that  ihey  cap- 
tured several  valuable  prizes,  in  which  actions  he  participated.  But  inter- 
esting as  this  view  of  the  war  of  Independence  is  from  the  decks  of 
English  fleets,  little  comparatively  is  familiar  to  American  students  of  their 
history,  or  known  of  Coffin's  own  experiences  to  relate  them  here  as  inci- 
dents in  his  life. 

In  November,  1779,  Coffin,  now  lieutenant,  went  to  England  and  was 
appointed  to  the  Adamant,  about  to  be  launched  at  Liverpool.  In  June, 
1780,  that  ship  sailed  for  Plymouth  under  jury  masts;  and  in  the  month 
of  August  following  she  was  ordered  to  convoy  the  trade  bound  to  New 
York.  His  next  appointment  was  to  the  London,  of  ninety -eight  guns,  the 
flag-ship  of  Rear-Admiral  Graves,  then  second  in  command  on  the  coast 
of  America,  and  from  her  he  removed  into  the  Royal  Oak,  a  third-rate, 
under  Vice-Admiral  Arbuthnot,  to  whom  he  acted  as  signal  lieutenant  in 
the  action  off  Cape  Henry,  March  i6,  1781.  As  he  rose  in  rank  and  was 
clothed  with  graver  responsibilities,  the  part  he  took  was  more  conspicu- 
ous, and  we  may  mention,  even  in  connection  with  an  officer  so  young  as 
he  was,  much  of  what  took  place. 

The  events  of  the  first  four  years  of  the  war,  from  1775  to  1779,  are 
sufficiently  familiar;  D'Estaing's  repulse  at  Savannah  and  Prescott's  evac- 
uation of  Newport  in  October,  1779;  its  reoccupation  by  Tiernay  in 
July,  1780.  The  reduction  of  Charleston,  defeat  of  Gates  at  Camden, 
defection  of  Arnold,  capture  at  sea  of  Henry  Laurens,  had  followed  in 
quick  succession.  Congress  sent,  in  December,  1780,  John,  son  of  its 
captured  president,  who  had  gained  glory  in  the  recent  battles,  to  help 
extricate  his  father  from  the  Tower,  and  arrange  with  King  Louis,  Frank- 
lin, and  Vergennes  for  the  coming  campaign.  Britain,  disappointed,  had 
sued  for  peace  by  arbitration,  which  France  was  disposed  to  concede  on 
condition  of  American  independence.  Meanwhile  the  King  urged  his  allies 
to  make  strenuous  exertions  to  better  their  condition,  which  seemed  also 
the  English  policy,  that  they  might  respectively  treat  to  better  advantage. 

Arnold's  sack  of  Virginia,  Cornwallis'  march  to  Yorktown,  manoeuvred 
thither  by  Lafayette,  Wayne,  and  Greene,  were  preparing  the  crisis.  The 
King,  in  March,  '81,  had  promised  millions  of  money,  arms,  and  garments. 
He  provided  for  the  co-operation  of  De  Grasse,  with  a  formidable  fleet 
and  several  thousand  men  from  the  West  Indies,  with  Washington  and 
Rochambeau  in  the  Chesapeake  at  the  end  of  August. 

A  French  squadron  in  March,  1781,  had  a  partial  engagement  at  Cape 
Henry  with  Admiral  Arbuthnot,  under  whom  Coffin,  as  mentioned,  served 
as  signal  lieutenant.    Washington  and  Rochambeau  in  July  passed  round 


38 


THE  LIFE  OF 


J 

I-  "4 


m 


New  York,  reaching  the  Chesapeake  as  De  Grasse  with  his  twenty-four  line- 
of-battle  ships  made  his  appearance.  The  Enghsh  leaders,  both  on  land 
and  along  shore,  had  been  on  the  watch,  and  Graves,  Hood,  and  Drake, 
with  nineteen  ships,  hovered  near.  Upon  their  arrival,  De  Grasse  stood 
out  to  sea,  the  British  fleet  following.  In  the  engagement  of  the  5th  of 
September  that  ensued,  the  British  lost  a  few  hundred  men  and  De  Grasse 
accomplished  his  object.  De  Barres,  who  had  come  down  from  Newport, 
improved  the  occasion  to  enter  the  bay,  and  the  two  French  fleets  thus 
hermetically  sealed  it  against  the  British.  Graves  hurried  back  to  Sandy 
Hook  for  reinforcements ;  but  when  he  returned  with  seven  thousand  men, 
sent  by  Clinton  to  relieve  Cornwallis,  on  the  24th  of  October,  it  was  too 
late,  Cornwallis  had  already  surrendered. 

How  it  chanced  that  Coffin  took  no  more  active  part  in  these  oper-  I 
ations  may  be  thus  explained.  After  the  battle  of  March  i6th,  on  the 
return  to  New  York,  the  Royal  Oak,  after  taking  several  valuable  prizes, 
had  grounded  and  was  sufficiently  injured  to  be  hove  down  at  Halifax.  In 
the  middle  of  June  arrived  a  vessel  from  Bristol  with  the  remains  of  his 
father,  who  had  died  on  board  the  day  before  of  gout.  Having  held  an 
important  position  under  government,  his  obsequies  in  New  York,  on 
Broadway,  showed  due  regard  to  his  memory.  Isaac  was  placed  soon  after 
in  command  of  the  Avenger,  the  advanced  post  of  the  British  up  the 
North  River,  which  he  held  during  the  autumn,  till  he  exchanged  with 
Sir  Alexander  Cochrane  for  the  Pocahontas  and  joined  Hood  early  in 
January  at  Barbadoes. 

Lord  Hood  had  been  often  in  Boston.  His  wife's  uncle,  Captain  John 
Linzee,  had  there  married  the  daughter  of  Ralph  Innian,  of  Cambridge. 
I^ord  Hood  was  present  at  this  marriage,  as  afterward  at  that  in  the  same  I 
apartment  in  the  house  of  Mr.  John  Rowe,  who  had  also  married  an  Inman, 
of  Linzee's  daughter  Hannah  to  my  namesake  and  father's  brother. 
Under  the  same  roof  William  H.  Prescott,  whose  wife  was  the  daughter 
of  Hannah  Linzee,  wrote  his  earlier  histories.  Hood  well  knew  Coffin, 
and  it  required  very  little  solicitation  on  his  part  to  invite  him  to  serve  on  I 
board  the  Barfleur,  his  flagship. 

Soon  after  the  surrender  at  Yorktown  Hood  had  sailed  for  Barbadoes,  I 
awaiting  De  Grasse.  January  14,  1782,  soon  after  Coffin  had  joined  him,! 
he  learned  that  De  Grasse  had  relinquished  his  plan  of  attacking  Barbadoei,! 
and  gone  to  St.  Kitts,  where  De  Bouille  had  landed  eight  thousand  troops,  [ 
the  British  garrison  under  Frazer  consisting  of  but  six  hundred  men. 

Deciding  to  attack  the  French  fleet  at  anchor  to  save  the  place.  Hood  I 
embarked  Prescott,  who  had  twice  been  in  command  at  Newport,  with  thtl 


III  linMII!! Ml 


wm 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,   BART. 


39 


few  troops  that  could  be  spared  from  Antigua,  and  set  sail.  At  daybreak  he 
signalled  for  battle ;  but  the  Alfred,  running  foul  of  the  Nymph,  arrested  the 
prosecution  of  the  design,  in  order  to  repair  damages.  De  Graiiise  put  to 
sea  to  have  more  room  to  manoeuvre,  and  thus  secure  the  advantage  of 
his  superiority  in  numbers.  At  daylight  on  the  25  th,  the  French 
fleet,  twenty-nine  sail  strong,  formed  in  line  of  battle  three  leagues  to 
leeward.  Hood,  who  had  but  twenty-two,  pushed  the  enemy  still  farther 
to  leeward  while  he  took  possession  of  Basse  Terre,  the  position  Hood 
had  left.  The  Count,  astonished  at  these  excellent  operations  which  cut 
him  off  from  his  army,  made  a  furious  onset  on  the  British  rear,  commanded 
by  Affleck,  who,  under  an  incessant  fire,  covered  the  ships  till  they  reached 
their  several  stations.  ^ 

The  next  morning  the  French  admiral  attacked  again  the  British,  van 
and  rear,  but  was  repulsed,  losing  a  thousand  men.  His  own  flagship,  the 
Ville  de  Paris,  present  of  that  city  to  the  King,  all  the  next  day  lay  upon 
her  heels  covering  her  shot-holes.  The  siege  proceeded  with  various 
success,  till  De  Bouille  arrived  with  four  thousand  fresh  troops,  when 
Frazer  capitulated.  Hood,  on  the  19th,  reached  Antigua,  and  joined, 
a  few  days  later  Lord  Rodney,  with  reinforcements  from  England. 

These  operations  form  an  epoch  in  the  annals  of  the  British  Navy. 
Compelling  an  enemy  of  a  superior  force  to  quit  his  anchorage,  taking 
himself  the  situation  thus  left  during  action,  defeating  every  attempt  to 
force  the  position,  and  cutting  the  enemy  off  from  his  army.  It  was  a 
lesson  in  naval  tactics  that  will  ever  be  deservedly  regarded  with  admiration, 
both  for  Hood's  skill  in  these  masterly  manoeuvres,  and  for  the  bravery  and 
precision  with  which  they  were  executed  by  those  under  his  orders. 

While  at  Santa  Lucia,  Rodney,  learning  that  De  Grasse,  with  5,500 
men  and  heavy  guns,  had  pushed  for  St.  Domingo  to  reduce  it,  overtook 
him  on  April  7th,  and  the  battle  of  the  9th  and  victory  of  the  12th  were 
the  results.  The  battle  on  the  12th  began  at  seven  in  the  morning.  It 
was  fought  in  a  large  basin  of  water  lying  among  the  islands  of  Guadaloupe, 
Dominique,  the  Saints,  and  Marie  Galante.  Both  on  the  windward  and 
leeward  of  this  bay  lay  dangerous  shores.  As  day  broke,  Rodney  closed 
up  his  line  at  one  cable  length  instead  of  at  two,  as  usual,  each  ship  as  she 
ranged  up  to  her  opponent  giving  and  receiving  a  tremendous  fire.  At 
noon,  with  his  own  ship,  the  Formidable,  and  three  more,  he  bore  down 
upon  the  enemy  within  three  ships  of  the  centre  and  broke  through.  His 
othf r  ships  followed,  doubling  upon  the  enemy  and  placing  them  between 
two  fires.  Rodney  then  wore  and  signalled  the  van  to  tack  ;  they  gained 
the  windward  and  completed  the  disorder  and  confusion  of  the  French. 


IM 


40 


THE  LIFE  OF 


The  French  continued  the  combat,  attempting  to  reform  their  broken 
line  by  the  van  breaking  away  to  windward.  Meanwhile  Hood,  in  the 
Barfleur,  earlier  becalmed,  rushed  down  upon  the  foe.  The  Canada,  74, 
took  the  Hector.  Ingrefield  in  the  Centaur  attacked  the  Cesar  ;  the  cap- 
tain nailed  his  colors  to  the  mast  and  was  killed.  When  she  struck  her 
mast  went  overboard,  and  she  had  not  a  foot  of  canvas  without  a  shot-hole. 
The  Glorieux  fought  bravely,  but  was  forced  to  yield.  The  Ardent  was 
retaken,  the  Diadem,  74,  went  down  by  a  single  broadside  attributed  to  the 
Formidable,  Rodney's  flag-ship. 

Between  the  French  ship,  the  Ville  de  Paris,  and  the  Canada,  a  desper- 
ate action  raged  for  two  hours.  De  Grasse  seemed  determined  to  sink 
rather  than  strike.  The  Barfleur,  Hood's  flag-ship,  on  which  was  Coffin, 
at  sunset  poufed  in  a  fire  which  killed  sixty  men  outright,  and  De  Grasse 
struck  to  Hood.  It  is  said  that  at  the  time  she  struck  but  three  men  were 
left  alive  and  unhurt  on  the  upper  deck,  and  the  Count  was  one. 

Hood,  despatched  in  pursuit  of  the  French  vessels  that  attempted  to 
escape,  overtook  and  captured  four.  The  whole  loss  of  the  French 
amounted  to  eight  vessels,  one  of  which  was  sunk  and  another  blown  up. 
On  the  Ville  de  Paris  were  thirty-six  chests  of  money  to  pay  the  troops.  She 
was  said  to  have  been  at  that  time  the  only  first-rate  ever  carried  into  port 
by  any  commander  of  any  nation.  The  French  lost  3,000  men,  the  British 
1,000.  Rodney  was  made  a  peer  of  Great  Britain,  Hood  of  Ireland,  Drake 
and  Aflleck  baronets. 


ADMIRAL  SIR   ISAAC   COFFIN,  BART. 


41 


VIII. 


CAPTAIN   OF   A   SEVENTY-FOUR. 


Shortly  after  the  battle  of  April  12,  1782,  Captain  Coffin,  who  had  re- 
joined his  sloop,  went  with  part  of  the  crew  of  the  Santa  Amonica,  which 
had  been  wrecked  at  Tortola,  to  Jamaica,  where,  through  the  influence  of 
Hood,  he  was  appointed  by  Lord  Rodney  captain  of  the  Shrewsbury,  of  74 
guns,  and  confirmed  in  that  rank  June  13, 1782,  sixty  days  later,  when  only 
twenty-two  years  of  age.  This  indicates  the  estimate  of  both  Hood  and 
Rodney  of  his  ability,  prudence,  and  courage,  of  the  value  of  his  services  in 
these  recent  operations. 

While  still  in  command  of  the  sloop  Pocahontas  at  Antigua,  the  town 
of  St.  Johns  caught  fire  and  in  a  short  space  was  nearly  consumed.  Coffin, 
with  the  crew  of  his  sloop  and  other  sailors  collected  by  his  exertions,  at 
length  succeeded  in  arresting  the  progress  of  the  flames,  at  the  imminent 
risk  of  his  life.  For  this  service  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  receiving  an 
address  of  thanks  from  the  legislative  body  of  the  island. 

It  is  not  easy  to  determine,  from  the  varying  accounts  of  these  battles, 
whether  Coffin,  on  April  12,  1782 — Rodney's  great  victory — was  on  board 
the  Barfleur  with  Hood,  or  in  command  of  his  own  vessel.  Soon  after  that 
event  we  find  him  despatched  on  special  service,  to  carry  a  portion  of 
the  crew  of  the  above  ship,  as  just  stated,  the  Mona  Amonica,  which  had 
been  captured  September  14,  1779,  by  his  friend,  George  Montague,  in 
the  Romney,  to  Jamaica.  Forming  part  of  the  operations,  in  which  he 
shared  with  the  rest  and  gained  his  promotion,  this  brief  sketch  of  these 
events  will  not  seem  out  of  place.  Great  sea-fights  before  and  since — 
Trafalgar,  St.  Vincent's,  and  many  more — ^have  displayed  the  naval  genius 
of  great  commanders,  when  seamanship  and  bravery  have  won  glory  for 
Britain. 

In  these  encounters  the  great  embarrassment  to  contend  with  was 
less  the  enemy  than  the  wind.  This  is  now  changed.  The  develop- 
ment of  steam-power,  not  only  for  propulsion,  but  armor  and  arma- 
ment, has  brought  to  an  end  the  naval  tactics  which  controlled  the  result 
in  engagements  where  combatants  were  well  matched.  Ships,  clad  like 
the  warriors  of  old  in  complete  steel,  now  set  at  defiance  wind  and  tide. 


PTW 


I  131 


43 


THE  LIFE  OF 


illii 


^"'■Mm 


m 


iii 


ilii 


yiiiiiiliiii 


Since  the  Monitor,  they  have  effectually  superannuated  the  wooden  walls 
to  which  nations  old  and  new  once  trusted  for  safety  and  supremacy.  If  no 
longer  ships  by  thousands  participate  in  the  decisive  battles  of  the  future, 
contending  fleets,  composed  of  vessels  of  great  cost,  fewer  in  number, 
hurling  their  huge  missiles  out  of  sight  to  their  target,  will  change  the  whole 
character  of  naval  warfare.  If  we  have  no  fleet,  to  speak  of,  of  our  own, 
we  spend  millions  in  feeding  useless  mouths  without  benefit  to  the  nation. 
It  behooves  us  to  educate  our  oflicers  to  become  Nelsons  and  Colling- 
woods.  Porters  and  Farraguts,  when  circumstances  not  to  be  foreseen  or 
controlled,  forces  upon  us  another  Salamis. 

Unless  we  guard  our  cities  with  the  latest  improvements  in  defensive 
warfare,  possess  fleets  able  to  cope  with  the  best,  we  may  be  exposed  to 
tribute,  to  aggression,  or  insult — have  left  no  alternative  but  the  last  argu- 
ment of  kings  and  nations,  the  arbitrament  of  arms.  Sir  Archibald  Alli- 
son, thirty  years  ago,  from  his  reading  of  human  history,  that  inasmuch  as 
mankind  always  fought  when  they  could  afford  it,  predicted  that  the  pre- 
cious metals  discovered  in  such  heaps  would  reopen  the  gates  of  Janus. 
The  event  has  justified  his  prophecy.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  growing 
intelligence  of  the  race  will  recognize  the  absurdity  of  spending  blood  and 
treasure  in  such  profitless  avocations.  Yet,  while  the  world  continues 
ignorant  and  stupid,  we  should  be  prepared  for  attack.  We  should  have 
forts,  ships,  and  captains,  who  will  learn  from  the  old  strategy  and  tactics, 
on  land  and  sea,  what  they  had  of  value — accomplished  commanders,  who 
can,  besides,  devise  new  methods  to  meet  the  modern  facilities  of  destruc- 
tion, which  science,  like  Cadmus  of  old,  who  invented  the  alphabet,  brings 
out  of  the  earth. 

Peace  soon  came.  Though  Coffin  had  gained  a  permanent  rank  in  the 
Navy,  there  was  much  to  discourage  him  in  finding  his  vocation  thus 
changed,  if  not  gone.  His  family  was  broken  up.  The  remains  of  his 
father  lay  in  their  last  resting-place,  as  already  mentioned,  in  New  York. 
John,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  had  raised  a  mounted  rifle  corps  in  New 
York  called  the  Orange  Rangers,  which,  with  him  as  their  commandant, 
took  part  in  the  battle  of  Long  Island,  August  27,  1776,  and  in  that  of 
Germantown,  October  4,  1777.  I^ater,  he  exchanged  into  the  New  York 
Volunteers,  was  at  San  Lucie  and  Brier's  Creek  in  1779,  at  Camden  in 
1780,  at  Holkirk's  Hill,  near  Camden,  April  25th,  and  at  Eutaw  Springs 
September  8,  1781.  He  is  mentioned,  as  a  brave  and  successful  cavalry 
officer,  with  commendation  in  nearly  every  other  engagement  of  the  South- 
em  campaign,  constantly  in  desperate  encounters  and  coming  off  victo- 
rious.   Though  a  purse  of  ten  thousand  dollars  was  offered  for  his  capture, 


\r  h 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


43 


he  escaped  to  Charleston,  where  he  married,  as  the  war  closed,  Miss 
Matthews,  and  establishing  himself  later  on  his  manor  of  Alwington,  on 
the  St.  John's,  in  New  Brunswick,  he  lived  till  he  was  eighty-two  in  great 
honor.  That  at  the  close  of  the  war  of  Independence,  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
seven,  his  rank  was  only  that  of  a  major,  that  he  was  not  promoted  to  a 
higher  rank,  as  urged  by  Howe  and  Cornwallis,  is  attributed  to  enmity  at 
court  for  telling  the  truth  of  a  favorite.  He  was  at  the  head  of  the  gen- 
erals when  he  died. 

As  he  has  had  recently  (1880)  his  biographer  in  one  of  his  descendants. 
Captain  Henry  Coffin,  of  the  Royal  Navy,  this  is  not  the  place  to  relate 
more  particularly  his  brilliant  achievements  or  numberless  anecdotes  well 
remembered.  I  vividly  recall  his  tall  commanding  figure  and  marvellous 
bright  eyes,  in  my  early  home  in  Park  Street,  in  Boston,  where  he  was  a 
frequent  visitor  of  my  father,  who  had  charge  of  his  affairs  as  of  his 
brother's.  He  was  more  sedate  than  Isaac,  but  both  were  brilliant  speci- 
mens of  the  race.  He  was  beloved  and  greatly  esteemed  by  his  numerous 
cousins,  and  splendid  salmon  from  the  river  near  his  home  were  often  sent 
by  him  for  their  enjoyment.  He  also,  like  his  brother,  if  not  on  so  grand 
a  scale,  in  order  to  promote  our  stock,  sent  fine  horses  to  the  Agricultural 
Society  at  Brighton. 

The  brothers,  of  nearly  the  same  age,  and  the  best  of  friends,  Isaac 
may  well  have  wished  to  have  been  present  at  John's  wedding  .to  Miss 
Matthews,  which  took  place  toward  the  close  of  1 782.  Charleston  lay  on 
the  route  from  Antigua,  and  it  would  not  have  been  strange  if,  in  the  spirit 
of  mutual  consideration  that  prevailed  in  the  service,  such  an  opportunity 
had  been  given  him.    If  so,  it  does  not  appear. 


V\. 


lil 


44 


THE  LIFE  OF 


IX. 

PEACE  OF   1783. 


Early  in  1 783,  war  over,  and  the  Shrewsbury  paid  off,  Coffin  exchanged 
into  the  Plj'dra,  and  going  home,  was  put  out  of  commission.  His  i)revious 
visits  to  England  had  been  brief  and  on  professional  duty.  This  new 
experience  to  one  who,  at  the  age  of  twenty-two,  had  gained  the  rank  of 
cajjtain,  and  by  his  valuable  services  made  his  mark  as  one  of  the  best 
officers  of  the  Navy,  might  have  turned  the  head  of  one  less  sensible. 

To  be  his  own  master,  with  abundance  of  prize  money,  jjlenty  of 
companions,  like  dashing  blades  to  share  it,  must  have  been  replete  with 
gratification.  Many  of  his  family  and  friends  from  Boston  had  taken  up 
their  abode  in  London,  and  the  refugee  loyalists  formed  there  a  large  circle. 
They  were  all  disposed  to  like  Isaac,  a  handsome  young  fellow  with  pleas- 
ant ways,  generous  and  unpretending,  loaded  with  laurels.  If  the  highest 
honors  of  the  war  attached  to  superior  rank  and  more  distinguished  com- 
mand, he  had  done  enough  to  be  held  in  estimation  among  his  own  inti- 
mates, by  the  great  naval  celebrities,  and  by  the  public. 

He  was  much  in  France  while  thus  on  furlough.  Paris  still  retained  the 
glamour  of  the  old  regime.  If  heavy  taxes  or  arbitrary  power  created  wide- 
spread discontent  and  disaffection,  there  were  as  yet  few  indications  of 
the  caldron  seething  beneath,  soon  to  overwhelm.  It  is  much  to  be  wished 
more  of  his  correspondence  had  survived  to  give  us  his  own  impressions 
of  Paris  then.  He  wrote  well  and  with  the  vivacity  that  characterized  his 
conversation.  Possibly  many  more  of  his  letters  may  exist  of  all  periods 
of  his  life,  and  if  so,  they  sliould  be  collected. 

Sir  Guy  Carleton,  who  could  hardly  have  saved  Canada  for  the  crown, 
in  1 7  75,  without  the  aid  of  the  Coffins,  and  whose  private  secretary  through- 
out his  career  was  Isaac's  cousin,  Sir  Thomas  Aston  Coffin,  was  now,  in 
1 786,  appointed  Governor  of  Canada.  It  was  probably  at  his  request  that 
Isaac  was  appointed  to  the  Thisbe,  to  take  him  with  his  family  and  suite  to 
Quebec.  He  had  been  created  Lord  Dorchester,  that  being  an  old  title 
in  the  Carleton  family.  The  ship  arrived  at  Quebec  late  in  the  season, 
and,  lest  she  should  be  frozen  up,  Coffin  proceeded,  two  days  later,  to 
Halifax  for  the  winter,  returning  in  the  spring  to  Canada,  and  remained 
there  for  some  months. 


m 

I 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC   COFFIN,  BART. 


4$ 


At  thit  time  a  circumstance  occurred  to  disturb  his  serenity,  though 
later  he  was  entirely  exonerated  from  any  blame.  It  iiad  been  long  the 
custom  in  the  English  naval  service,  among  other  abuses  working  occa- 
sional injustice  and  demanding  reform,  to  retain  on  the  ship  rolls  the  names 
of  young  officers  while  pursuing  their  studies  ashore;  so  that  they  might 
not,  while  qualifying  themselves  for  their  responsible  duties,  lose  their  pre- 
cedence for  promotion.  Many  years  before,  in  consequence  of  some  unfair 
advantage  that  had  been  taken  of  this  indulgence,  a  regulation  prohibiting 
such  practices  had  been  adopted  by  the  Admiralty.  It  chanced  at  this  very 
time  someone  again  had  been  aggrieved,  and  attention  been  called  to  the 
prevalence  of  what  had  been  prohibited.  It  was  ascertained  that  two  such 
cases  were  on  the  rolls  of  the  Thisbe,  not  placed  there  with  the  knowledge 
of  Coffin,  but  which  it  was  his  duty  as  captain  to  have  discovered  and  struck 
off.  Upon  inquiry  and  complaint  he  was  suspended,  and  indignant  at  what 
he  conceived  unfair  treatment,  he  proceeded  to  Flanders,  and  entered  into 
the  service  of  the  Brabant  patriots  then  in  arms  against  Austria. 

This  decree  of  suspension  by  the  board,  when  appealed  from  to  the 
twelve  judges,  was  by  them  declared  illegal  on  the  part  of  the  Admiralty 
and  set  aside.  This  put  an  end  to  the  suspension  and  restored  him  to  his 
standing  in  the  service.  Upon  the  Spanish  armament  in  1 790,  on  the  Nootka 
Sound  dispute,  he  was  appointed  to  the  Alligator,  and  in  the  following 
spring,  having  received  the  flag  of  Commodore  Cosby,  was  ordered  to 
America,  whence  he  returned  home  with  Lord  Dorchester  and  his  family  the 
following  autumn. 

While  thus  stationed  at  Halifax,  he  visited  Quebec  on  furlough,  and 
remained  there  a  twelvemonth.  He  naturally  found  the  place  attractive 
socially  as  in  other  ways.  Besides  his  cousin,  Thomas  Aston,  son  of  his 
uncle  William,  his  Uncle  John  resided  in  that  city  with  his  family,  who 
were  about  his  own  age.  John,  early  after  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  at 
Boston,  had  taken  his  wife,  Isabella  Child,  and  eleven  surviving  of  his 
fifteen  children,  six  sons  and  five  daughters,  in  his  own  ship,  the  Neptune, 
to  Quebec.  He  there  purchased  land,  and  when  Montgomery  and 
Arnold  arrived  in  December,  1775,  to  besiege  the  city,  he  remodelled  the 
buildings  he  was  constructing  for  another  purpose  into  a  fortification.  This 
he  armed  with  guns  from  a  vessel  frozen  in  for  the  winter,  and  with  Barne- 
fare,  its  captain,  stood  ready  with  a  small  force  to  oppose  the  assailants. 
With  the  first  volley  he  slew  Montgomery  and  his  two  aids,  on  the  last  day 
of  the  year  1775,  as  they  attempted  to  take  his  fort  by  assault.  This,  with 
Arnold's  subsequent  loot  of  Montreal,  which  disaffected  the  Canadians, 
saved  Canada  for  the  British  crown. 


46 


THE  LIFE  OF 


ilii 

■    '  t'.llV'i^iJ 


The  sons  of  John  all  reached  distinguished  rank  in  the  British  civil  and 
military  service,  and  three  of  his  daughters  were  connected  with  it  by 
marriage.  Isabella  married  Colonel  McMurdo,  whose  sons  gained  dis- 
tinction in  India ;  Susannah,  Hon.  John  Craigie,  provincial  treasurer,  whose 
son,  an  admiral,  died  in  1872  at  Dawlish ;  his  daughter  Margaret,  Sir 
Roger  Hailes  Sheafe,  born  in  Boston,  who  for  his  victory  at  Queenstown 
Heights,  October  13,  181 2,  was  made  a  baronet.  One  of  the  sons  of  John, 
Francis  Holmes,  in  the  navy  throughout  the  war  with  France,  served  with 
distinction  and  died  an  admiral  in  1835. 

While  on  his  way  up  the  river  to  Quebec  in  1786,  the  Thisbe  was  be- 
calmed off  the  Magdalen  Islands  in  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  struck  by  their 
appearance,  perhaps  the  more  attractive  from  the  autumnal  splendors. 
Coffin  requested,  probably  not  in  very  serious  earnest,  that  Lord  Dorchester, 
as  representative  of  the  crown,  would  bestow  them  on  him.  This  request 
seemed  reasonable  to  the  governor.  It  was  not  received  at  first  with  favor  at 
home,  but  renewed  the  following  year  in  more  formal  manner,  was  eventu- 
ally granted.  The  letters-patent  were  not  expedited  until  1 798,  during  the 
governorship  of  Robert  Prescott.  In  his  will  Sir  Isaac  entailed  these  islands 
on  his  nephew,  John  Townsend  Coffin,  and  his  sons,  John's  brother,  Henry 
Edward,  his  cousin  William,  and  several  other  branches  of  his  own  name, 
and  then  on  the  Barwells,  his  sister's  sons.  The  son  of  Sir  Isaac  Tristram, 
who  died  in  1872,  now  holds  them. 

After  his  return  to  Europe,  while  lying  at  the  Nore  during  a  heavy  gale, 
a  man  fell  overboard,  and  Coffin  leaped  after  him  into  the  sea  and  succeeded 
in  saving  his  life.  He  sustained  by  his  efforts  a  serious  injury,  which  fre- 
quently afterward  reminded  him  of  this  act  of  humanity. 

Another  heroic  act,  of  somewhat  similar  character,  has  been  related  of 
his  promptness  in  emergencies.  While  at  Portsmouth,  or  some  other 
naval  station,  and,  it  is  believed,  still  a  subaltern,  his  ship,  one  of  the  line, 
caught  fire,  *..  hich  bein^^  in  close  proximity  to  the  magazine,  sailors  and 
marines  ruslftid  with  precipitation  to  the  gangway  to  escape  the  instantly 
expected  explosion.  By  authority,  or  example,  he  changed  their  purpose, 
and  the  men  going  to  quarters,  saved  the  ship. 

Soon  after  his  return  the  Alligator  was  paid  off.  After  visiting 
Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Russia  he  returned  home  upon  the  troubles  with 
France,  and  in  charge  of  the  Melampus  frigate  was  employed  on  Channel 
service  to  the  close  of  1794.  While  exerting  himself  on  a  boisterous 
night,  when  the  frigate  was  in  great  danger  of  destruction,  he  sustained  a 
similar  injury  to  that  at  the  Nore,  which  compelled  him  to  leave  his  ship, 
and  for  some  time  he  remained  a  cripple.    Nine  months  lat^r,  however. 


11 


m 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


47 


while  recovering  his  strength  at  Leith  on  service,  he  was  sent  as  resident 
commissioner  of  Corsica,  and  remained  till  October,  1 796,  when  the  island 
was  evacuated.  From  Elba  he  was  removed  to  Lisbon  to  take  charge  for 
the  next  two  years  of  the  naval  establishment  at  that  place.  He  was  thence 
despatched  to  superintend  the  arsenal  at  Port  Mahon  when  Minorca  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  English,  and  from  there  ordered  to  Nova  Scotia  in  the 
Venus  frigate.  At  Halifax,  and  afterward  at  Sheerness,  as  resident  commis- 
sioner, he  was  employed  till  April,  1804,  when  appointed  rear-admiral  he 
hoisted  his  flag  on  the  Gladiator  on  duty  at  Portsmouth,  and  the  following 
month  he  was  created  a  baronet.  The  record  recites  the  grant  of  the 
Magdalen  Islands  in  the  St.  Lawrence,  for  his  unremitting  zeal  and  perse- 
vering efforts  in  the  public  service.  He  was  promoted  four  years  later  to 
the  grade  of  vice-admiral,  which  ended  his  naval  duties  afloat,  though  he 
became  full  admiral  in  1814  by  regular  seniority. 

This  sketch  of  his  services  at  sea  is  very  incomplete.  The  -lemoir  of 
him  in  1822,  by  Marshall,  in  London,  when  he  was  in  Parliament,  is  brief, 
and  the  obituary  in  TAe  Gentleman's  Magazine  when  he  died,  not  even 
as  extended.  I  have  no  data  of  his  cruise  in  the  Pacific,  along  the  shore 
of  Australia,  mentioned  by  Mr.  Allen  CofHn,  which  has  left  its  trace  on  the 
charts  in  Sir  Isaac's  Point  and  Coffin's  Bay.  It  seems  more  likely  to  have 
taken  place  about  the  close  of  the  last  century  or  the  beginning  of  this. 

His  prize  money  in  such  troubled  times  had  been  considerable.  This 
he  entrusted  to  my  father,  one  of  his  cousins  in  his  native  place,  favorably 
circumstanced,  to  invest  it  to  advantage,  and  it  was  said  that  the  income 
finally  equalled  the  original  deposits.  He  made  frequent  visits  to  his  early 
home  in  the  course  of  his  busy  life  upon  the  sea,  having  made  more  than 
thirty  voyages  to  and  from  America. 


.lia 


48 


THE  LIFE  OF 


I : 


'   '■■■■■'I 


X. 


MARRIAGE   AND   PARLIAxMENT. 


linpu 


'm 


Affluent  and  a  baronet,  he  naturally  longed  for  a  home  and  inclined  to 
transmit  his  baronetcy  to  his  posterity.  March,  181 1,  he  married  Elizabeth 
Browne,  the  only  child  of  William  Greenly,  of  Titley  Court,  in  Hereford- 
shire. Her  family,  brought  up  with  rigid  notions  of  propriety,  did  not  take 
kindly  to  the  hearty  and  jovial  ways  which  characterized  naval  officers,  and 
the  match  proved  less  happy  than  expected. 

It  is  said  that  on  one  occasion,  returning  to  Titley  Court  on  some  par- 
ticularly festal  day,  he  ordered  the  sexton,  as  he  passed  through  the  village, 
to  ring  a  merry  peal  and  send  the  tenants  to  the  mansion  to  drink  a  glass 
of  ale.  This  mortally  offended  the  lord  of  the  manor,  who  thus  found  his 
prerogative  invaded  by  the  husband  of  his  only  child.  Within  a  few  years, 
satisfied  of  their  utter  incompatibility  of  temper,  they  very  amicably,  on 
both  sides,  arranged  for  independence  of  each  other. 

Without  intending  to  detract  from  her  merit,  the  lady  indulged  in  literary 
tastes  of  a  religious  tendency.  She  was  said  to  be  addicted  to  writing  ser- 
mons at  night,  to  the  disturbance  of  the  slumbers  of  her  rollicking  spouse, 
and  so,  after  a  space  they  separated.  She  remained  Lady  Greenly  and  he 
resumed  the  name  of  Coffin.  The  fault  was  certainly  not  hers,  who  was  a 
clever  and  exemplary  woman,  but  somewhat  eccentric  in  her  ways.  In 
after  life  she  was  well  known  in  Bath,  England,  remarkable  for  wearing, 
Welsh-woman  fashion,  a  man's  round  hat,  a  riding  habit  cut  short,  and  for 
wielding  a  gold-headed  cane.  She  lived  nearly  as  long  as  he  did,  but  they 
rarely  met,  though  he  made  repeated  overtures  to  reconciliation,  some 
rather  amusing. 

When  shipwrecked  in  the  Boston,  struck  by  lightning  on  her  way 
from  Charlestown  to  Liverpool  in  1829,  in  the  boat  for  several  days  with 
little  hope  of  rescue,  for  the  seas  were  not  then  as  much  traversed  as  now, 
he  expressed  great  affection  for  her,  and  gave  his  watch  to  the  captain  to 
send  her  should  he  himself  not  survive  their  perils  and  the  captain  be 
fortunate  enough  to  escape.  ^  /hile  in  the  crowded  boat,  on  this  occasion, 
with  no  shelter  and  little  covering,  and  the  scantiest  supply  of  food  and 
water,  his  own  cheerfulness,  interesting  conversation,  and  ebullitions  of 
good  humor,  kept  his  companions  in  heart  and  courage. 


1 


.r:iIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


49 


'  lb  the  reasonablf  ambition  of  all  Englishmen  whose  conditions  and 
circut-  .ances  ,  stify  surh  aspirations,  to  be  permitted  to  take  part  in  the 
legisiL.  "  ^nd  government  :  their  country,  and  when  his  own  health  and 
the  peace  r^  dered  active  service  in  the  Navy  no  longer  desirable,  his 
wish  was  gratified  by  his  return  to  Parliament.  One  of  his  friends,  Lord 
Darlington,  had  influence  enough  to  secure  his  return  in  1818,  for  the 
borough  of  Ilchester,  for  which  he  sat  till  the  dissolution  in  1826.  His 
reputation  and  experience  gave  especial  weight  to  his  opinions  when  he 
took  part,  as  he  frequently  did,  in  debates  on  naval  affairs.  What  he  said 
attracted  attention  to  its  practical  good  sense  by  the  hilarity  of  his  nature 
and  happy  stores  of  illustration  that  amused  while  they  convinced.  He 
was  tall,  robust,  but  of  symmetrical  proportions  ;  his  voice  powerful,  and 
his  countenance  expressive  and  noble.  His  long  habits  of  command  and 
contention'with  the  elements  inspired  confidence  in  himself,  which  com- 
manded that  of  the  House.  He  was  widely  known  and  generally  popular, 
and  happily  constituted  to  enjoy  the  social  pleasures  attending  ^success, 
tempered  in  their  indulgence  by  occasional  twinges  of  gout. 

Among  affluent  and  influential  circles,  nowhere  more  than  in  England, 
does  the  social  board  shape  public  opinion,  develop  and  test  ability,  or 
even  control  aflairs.  This  was  more  the  case  half  a  century  ago  than  since 
reform  bills  have  opened  the  door  more  widely  to  popular  representation. 
Officials  and  legislators  were  exclusively  selected  from  rank  and  wealth,  or 
for  extraordinary  ability  and  statesmanship,  and  the  aristocracy  they  repre- 
sented regarded  the  government  as  their  especial  ,v/ncern.  Much  could 
be  said  in  the  privacy  of  social  discussion  whicn  would  have  been  wholly 
impolitic  through  the  press,  or  in  the  halls  of  legislation.  From  memoirs 
and  biographies  since  published,  what  took  place  behind  the  scenes  has 
come  to  light  to  show  how,  and  by  whom,  public  aflairs  were  conducted 
I  and  managed.  Many  wise  and  noble  statesmen  were  among  the  leaders, 
but  much  has  transpired  that  had  better  have  been  consigned  to  oblivion. 
Social  chat  at  the  table  was  not  altogether  political ;  it  embraced  every 
conceivable  topic,  and  the  brilliant  encounters  of  wit,  the  profound  specu- 
lations of  philosophy,  the  flood  of  anecdote  and  historical  reminiscence, 
I  contributed  to  the  intellectual  banquet. 

From  his  varied  opportunities  and  confidential  acquaintance  with  men 
land  affairs,  few  had  more  to  impart  to  the  general  entertainment  of  the 
Ihoiir  than  Sir  Isaac.  He  possessed  rich  stores  of  the  information  most 
Ivahied,  and  his  jovial  nature  was  contagious  and  irresistible.  In  the 
Ibrilliant  round  of  London  hospitalities,  in  the  happily-ordered  routine  of 
Icountry  life,  where  scores  of  able  men  met  in  the  easiest  freedom  from 


j-fi 


m 


50 


THE  LIFE  OF 


constraint  as  guests  together,  he  was  everywhere  an  acquisition.  I 
remember  well  weeks  passed  under  the  same  roof  with  him  when  preparing 
for  my  college  examinations.  The  family  were  in  the  country,  and  he  was 
tied  by  the  foot  to  his  couch  by  the  gout.  But  from  morning  till  night, 
droll  stories,  amusing  incidents,  whimsies  and  oddities  of  every  description, 
exploded  like  fireworks  from  the  aged  man's  pillow,  intermingled  with 
occasional  garnish  of  more  savage  intensity  at  his  anguish. 


!■« 


m 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART, 


51 


XI. 


GENIAL  TEMPERAMENT. 


I  HAVE  Still  a  vivid  recollection  of  him  in  his  undress  uniform  as  a 
British  admiral,  at  an  earlier  period,  in  fine  health  and  the  perfection  of 
physical  maturity,  on  the  wide  lawn  and  in  the  spacious  parlors  of  Belmont, 
his  cousin's  and  my  uncle's  home.  He  was  then  tall  and  erect,  with  rich 
color  in  his  cheeks  and  merry  sparkle  in  his  eye,  brimming  over  with 
animal  spirits,  companionable,  and  with  fitting  chat  for  all.  His  funny 
words  and  ways  were  the  delight  and  dread  of  the  children,  into  whose 
frolics  he  entered  with  zest,  bewildering  their  minds  with  his  drolleries, 
both  they  and  himself  exploding  with  merriment  at  practical  jokes  too 
good-natured  to  offend. 

If  not  quite  as  prone  to  loud  expressions  of  mirth  and  merriment  in  so- 
cial intercourse  on  this  side  the  ocean  as  on  the  other,  one  so  gay  and  so 
brimful  of  amusing  jokes  and  stories  was  perhaps  all  the  better  appreci- 
ated. The  many  brilliant  gentlemen  of  Boston  in  professional  life,  or  among 
its  merchant  princes,  affluent  and  convivial,  were  pleased  to  have  him  as 
their  guest.  Loyalty  to  the  mother-country  died  out  slowly  ;  and  a  Bos- 
ton-born boy,  whose  numerous  kinsfolk  had  ample  means  for  hospitality, 
much  attention  was  paid  him.  Often  when  at  my  father's,  who  resided  in 
Park  Street,  where  now  is  the  Union  Club  House,  the  festal  entertain- 
ments extended  into  the  small  hours ;  and  those  upon  whom  it  devolved 
to  sit  up  to  receive  the  roisterers,  would  gladly  welcome  from  far  off  his 
shout  of  "  House  ahoy !  "  breaking  on  the  silent  watches  of  the  night. 

While  at  some  lordly  mansion  in  England  his  hostess  had  begged  him 
to  have  made  for  her  a  Boston  rocking-chair.  Not  wishing  to  disoblige  her 
ladyship,  he  enlisted  the  services  of  the  village  carpenter,  and  a  few  days 
after  had  the  contrivance,  not  then  to  be  found  in  fashionable  mansions  out 
of  the  nursery,  placed  in  the  apartment  where  the  company  at  the  castle 
assembled  before  dinner.  With  all  due  ceremony  he  led  the  amiable  and 
much-honored  lady  to  the  chair,  in  which  she  ensconced  herself  and  began 
to  rock.  Unfortunately,  the  rockers  had  not  been  constructed  on  scien- 
tific principles,  and  over  it  went,  with  many  eyes  to  behold.  Too  well  bred 
to  be  affronted,  sh-  gathered  herself  up  as  best  she  could ;  and  by  taking 


^  iif 


S3 


THE  LIFE  OF 


iMi 


v:  •ill 


it  kindly  put  the  admiral  at  his  ease,  and  contributed  to  the  gayety  of  the 
repast.  Her  husband,  whose  good  services  placed  him  in  Parliament,  did 
not  abate  them  for  the  casualty. 

One  day  an  American  ship  sailed  into  Portsmouth,  or  Plymouth,  before 
the  War  of  1812,  when  Sir  Isaac  had  charge  of  the  naval  fleet.  An  English 
officer  was  sent  on  board.  The  master  having  gone  ashore,  the  mate> 
being  in  charge,  did  not  receive  the  officer  with  the  etiquette  required  upon 
such  occasions.  The  officer  gave  the  first  salutation  as  he  reached  the  deck 
by  saying  :  *'  What  damned  kind  of  a  Yankee  lubber  has  charge  here,  who 
don't  know  his  duty  to  properly  receive  his  majesty's  officer?"  The  mate 
said  not  a  word,  but,  seizing  his  visitor  by  the  collar  and  slack  of  his  trou- 
sers,  threw  him  overboard  for  his  own  crew  to  pick  up.  Soon  after  an  armed 
boat  came  alongside  to  take  the  mate  on  board  the  flag-ship,  where  he  was 
arraigned  before  Sir  Isaac,  who  soon  became  aware  that  the  culprit  was  a 
kinsman,  whose  father  he  had  been  familiar  with  in  boyhood.  He  tried  to 
get  the  mate  to  acknowledge  that  he  was  ignorant'of  the  laws  and  customs, 
that  he  might  dismiss  the  case  with  a  caution  not  to  do  so  again  ;  but  the 
Yankee  was  obdurate.  *'  He'd  be  damned,"  he  said,  "  if  any  man  should 
insult  him  on  his  own  deck  and  under  the  flag  of  his  country."  The  of- 
fender was  remanded  to  be  regularly  tried  the  next  day.  In  the  meantime 
the  admiral  sent  a  messenger  to  privately  assure  the  mate  that  a  suitable 
apology  would  relieve  him  from  any  further  trouble  in  the  matter  ;  but  on 
the  trial  the  same  defiant  manner  was  assumed.  The  admiral  drew  out 
some  expression,  however,  which  he  accepted  as  satisfactory,  and  dismissed 
the  offender  with  suitable  admonitions. 

Later  in  the  day,  from  the  shore,  the  admiral  sent  a  message  to  the 
young  man,  stating  that,  as  his  father  was  an  old  friend  and  relative,  he 
would  be  happy  to  meet  the  son  and  enjoy  a  bottle  of  wine  with  him  at 
thejnn.  But  the  young  man  replied  that  the  admiral  might  go  to  h — 1  with 
his  wine.  He'd  see  him  d— d  first,  before  he'd  drink  with  any  d — d  Eng- 
lisher,  especially  one  who  would  approve  of  an  insult  to  an  officer  under 
his  own  flag,  upon  his  own  deck. 

The  admiral  used  to  relate  the  above  incident  with  much  gusto,  as  he 
admired  the  spirit  of  independence  exhibited  by  the  Yankee  mate.  We 
have  retained  the  strong  garnish,  as  a  fair  sample  of  the  profane  ways  of 
a  few  generations  ago.  Not  only  afloat  on  the  quarter-deck  and  on  the 
forecastle,  but  in  the  drawing-room  and  social  circles,  among  those  who 
should  have  known  better,  such  modes  of  speech  prevailed.  They  have 
long  since  vanished  from  among  all  classes  and  conditions  here  and  through- 
out Christendom. 


lifi 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


55 


Commodore  Hull,  of  our  Navy,  was  one  of  his  correspondents,  and 
General  Wilson,  our  honored  president,  has  been  good  enough  to  per- 
mit me  to  read  many  letters  that  passed  between  them  after  the  War  of 
1812,  and  when  the  two  countries  were  at  peace.  This  correspondence 
displays  alike  in  both  the  genial  and  generous  traits  which  the  Navy  is  thought 
peculiarly  to  foster.  I  propose  to  refer  to  one  subject  more  than  once 
mentioned  in  these  letters,  which,  to  use  the  old  phrase,  might  seem  only 
a  fish  story  and  for  the  marines,  if  not  evidently  believed  by  himself.  It  is 
in  reference  to  the  size  attained  in  former  days  by  lobsters  on  our  coasts. 
In  the  freedom  of  intercourse  around  the  table  or  on  the  quarter-deck,  while 
once  returning  to  America,  he  alleged  that  lobsters  had  been  found 
weighing  ninety  pounds.  Though  given  somewhat  to  rhodomontade,  he 
seems  in  this  instance  to  have  believed  the  fact  based  on  heai  say,  if  not 
on  sight.  My  own  fishmonger  told  me  that  within  his  experience  in  these 
waters  twenty-five  pounds  was  the  largest  that  had  come  to  his  knowledge, 
but  I  have  seen  it  stated  that  lobsters  of  much  larger  weight  have  been 
found  .  jwn  East,  where  there  is  more  room  for  expansion  and  imagination. 
The  size  attained  by  turtles  and  other  shell-fish  in  neighboring  waters 
renders  such  possibilities  less  incredible. 

Apropos  of  Hull  and  Sir  Isaac,  my  friend.  General  Wilson,  in  a  recent 
address  on  Commodore  Hull  and  the  frigate  Constitution,  said  :  "  When  in 
the  presence  of  a  Boston-born  British  admiral  another  naval  officer  indulged 
in  laudatory  and  extravagant  comments  on  the  capture  of  the  Chesa- 
peake and  endeavored  to  underrate  the  American  naval  victories  of  the 
War  of  1812-14,  and  particularly  that  gained  over  the  Guerrifere,  he  said, 
'  It  was  a  lucky  thing  for  your  friend  Broke  that  he  fell  in  with  the  unpre- 
pared Chesapeake,  and  not  with  Hull  and  the  Constitution.  If  he  had,  no 
Tower  guns  would  have  been  heard  celebrating  a  Shannon  victory.'  This 
manly  and  patriotic  statement  was  made  by  Sir  Isaac  Coffin  at  the  dinner 
table  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  and  was  related  to  me  by  his  eldest  son, 
the  second  Duke,  who  was  present.  On  the  same  occasion,  when  some- 
one spoke  sneeringly  of  the  Americans  as  soldiers,  a  general  of  my  own 
name  remarked, '  I  have  been  through  the  Peninsular  campaign,  and  was 
with  the  duke  at  Waterloo,  but  harder  fighting  I  never  saw  than  we  had  at 
I  Lundy's  Lane.' " 


.111 


tiJ 


54 


THE  LIFE  OF 


XII. 


BENEFACTIONS   AND   DEATH. 


Sir  Isaac's  character  was  too  racy  and  various  not  at  times  to  provoke 
censure  or  criticism.  He  did  so  much  that  should  not  be  forgotten,  so 
much  entitled  to  be  remembered,  that,  had  the  time  or  the  occasion 
allowed,  I  should  mention  several  anecdotes  that  have  come  to  my  knowl- 
edge which  show  what  he  was  from  all  points  of  view.  One  incident  would 
serve  to  explain  how  sometimes  he  created  ill-will  by  yielding  too  much  to 
his  impulses. 

These  impulses  were  quick  and  generous ;  his  disposition  to  be  of  service 
to  his  least  fortunate  kinsfolk  he  manifested  by  frequent  visits  and  liberal 
benefactions ;  and  if  occasionally  awakening  expectations  which  change  of 
impression  or  circumstances  disappointed,  his  imperfections  as  well  as 
his  noble  traits  constituted  a  part  of  his  character. 

1  have  already  mentioned  that  the  judicious  investment  of  his  pay  and 
prize-money  by  one  of  his  cousins  had  made  him  rich.  In  various  ways 
he  expressed  his  gratitude  even  to  another  generation.  In  a  paper  alluded 
to  in  his  will  he  left  bequests  to  a  long  list  of  his  kindred,  many  of  whom 
were  in  straitened  circumstances.  Others  better  off  he  did  not  forget, 
bequeathing  five  hundred  pounds  to  my  father's  children. 

He  took  an  especial  interest  in  the  eldest  son  of  this  cousin,  who  had 
been  the  junior  partner  of  the  house,  and  been  left,  by  the  death  of  his 
father,  in  control.  He  had  married,  and  taken  into  the  firm  one  of  the 
besj  of  men,  since  one  of  the  great  house  of  the  Barings  of  London. 
Losing  his  health,  Mr.  Amory  was  advised  by  his  physician  to  go  with  his 
wife  and  children  to  Europe.  When  they  took  their  departure,  he  left  Sir 
Isaac,  then  his  guest,  in  possession  of  his  dwelling.  Sir  Isaac  had  left  in 
the  firm,  as  part  of  its  working  capital,  $10,000,  to  be  used  in  its  transac- 
tions, with  the  assurance  that  it  should  not  be  called  for  while  he  lived. 
When,  owing  to  some  freak  of  temper  to  which  persons  tortured  by  the  j 
gout  are  liable,  he  insisted  upon  having  the  sum  thus  lent,  and  a  few  thou- 
sands more  then  due,  instantly  repaid,  the  brothers  and  sisters  were,  for  j 
the  most  part,  under  age,  the  paternal  property  undivided.  There  existed 
then  no  limited  liability.     Mill  corporations  recently  established,  in  which  | 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,   BART. 


55 


his  father  had  largely  invested,  and  of  some  of  which  he  had  been  president 
or  director,  becoming  unproductive,  tailing,  or  losing  their  credit,  left  ex- 
posed the  estate,  largely  composed  of  land,  wharves,  and  dwellings. 

it  was  a  most  mopportune  moment  for  Sir  Isaac  to  reclaim  the  loan 
accepted  expressly  upon  the  promise,  it  should  not  be  called  for  while  he 
lived.  By  sacrificing  his  patrimony  in  the  then  depreciated  market,  Sir 
Isaac  was  repaid  within  the  year,  though  the  inheritance  of  his  creditor,  thus 
disposed  of,  has  since  been  worth  twentyfold,  at  the  least,  what  it  brought. 
This  unexpected  blow  crippled  one  he  had  intended  to  serve,  who,  with  a 
large  family  of  ten  children,  struggled  on  bravely  as  well  as  he  could  with- 
out capital,  sometimes  eminently  successful,  always  active  and  energetic. 
Obliging,  beloved,  and  respected,  he  made  the  best  of  his  existence ;  and 
if  often  too  sanguine  of  results,  would,  but  for  this,  have  been  as  much 
favored  in  fortune  as  he  was  in  his  amiable  disposition  and  courtesies. 
It  is  too  old  a  story  for  praise  or  blame.  Probably  Sir  Isaac  had  forgotten 
his  promise,  and  when  he  thought  his  loan  imperilled  felt  bound  to  extri- 
cate it  from  danger. 

This  incident  is  mentioned  not  for  blame,  but  explanation.  It  left  at 
the  time  an  impression  lo  the  prejudice  of  our  subject,  and  as  the  only 
blur  upon  his  fame  as  large-hearted,  just,  and  generous,  it  should  not  be 
misunderstood.  Before  stocks  and  bonds  offered  safe  investments  for 
trusts,  money  was  often  left  with  merchants  and  bankers  upon  interest,  to 
be  used  as  part  of  their  capital.  When  the  profits  of  trade  judiciously  con- 
ducted ranged  from  twenty  to  thirty  per  cent.,  and  with  little  risk,  where 
there  was  prudence  and  wealth,  houses  well  established  often  found  it  of 
advantage  thus  to  enlarge  their  working  means.  In  this  instance  of  uni- 
form and  long-continued  success  and  established  reliability,  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  dollars  were  held,  some  at  fixed  rates  of  interest,  some  re- 
ceiving a  portion  of  the  profits.  No  corporation  existing  for  the  insur- 
ance of  marine  risks,  men  of  property,  of  various  professions  and  pursuits, 
visited  the  offices  where  such  business  was  transacted,  and  subscribed  as 
underwriters  on  ships  and  cargo.  Sometimes  people  not  in  trade  shared 
in  the  ventures  of  those  that  were. 

In  this  way  the  admiral's  own  fortunes  had  rolled  up,  in  the  care  of  his 
cousin,  to  very  respectable  dimensions.  It  was  with  the  view  of  increas- 
ing them  that  he  left  the  loan  to  be  accounted  for  to  his  executors  with 
his  son  and  surviving  partner.  It  wias  not  pretended  that  the  loan  was 
used,  except  in  the  regular  commercial  operations  of  the  house.  Sudden 
death,  a  large  family  to  divide  the  income,  illness  that  compelled  going 
abroad,  led  to  some  delay  in  responding  to  the  unexpected  call  for  it ; 


t  is. 


f      ' 


5<5 


THE  LIFE  OF 


Ifti! 


and  this,  where  exactness  and  i)roniptitude  had  been  the  unvarying  expe- 
rience,  fretted  the  temper  of  the  admiral.  The  best  of  us  occasionally  act 
from  impulse,  and  the  consequences  in  the  case  could  not  have  been  fore- 
seen. If  is  a  caution  to  men  not  to  be  precipitate.  It  prejudiced  many  of 
his  best  friends  against  him,  and  no  doubt  caused  him  in  his  later  life  much 
regret.  But  now  that  nearly  half  a  century  has  passed,  he  seems  fairly  enti- 
tled, in  the  estimation  of  all,  to  his  place  in  the  calendar  free  from  re- 
proach, so  far  as  this  incident  is  concerned,  and  the  writer  knows  of  no 
other  that  is  not  greatly  to  his  credit. 

There  is  another  explanation  which,  at  this  day  when  indulgence  in 
S])eculation  as  to  motives  for  transactions  so  remote  can  do  no  narm,  may 
serve  to  amuse  or  caution  against  the  possible  consequences  of  similar 
ebullitions.  The  admiral  had  been  the  frequent  guest  of  his  young  friend 
in  town  and  country,  using  his  horses  and  carriages  ;  and  when  the  family 
went  to  Europe,  begged  him  to  use  his  carriage  in  London,  and  gave 
orders  to  that  effect.  It  so  chanced  that  when  about  to  be  presented  at 
court,  as  there  were  many  olher  Americans  besides  to  go  with  them,  it 
seemed  the  right  moment  to  use  the  carriage,  whose  panels  were,  of  course, 
emblazoned  with  Sir  Isaac's  arms.  He  did  not  like  it,  and  took  it  rather 
in  dudgeon,  but  in  this  he  of  course  made  a  mistake. 

What  bears,  also,  some  connection  with  the  transaction,  if  not  particu- 
larly pertinent,  may  interest  some  of  our  readers.  Mr.  Amory  was  acting 
at  the  Isle  of  Wight,  as  representative  of  Colonel  Hunter,  our  Consul,  who 
had  gone  over  to  France  for  his  children,  about  whose  safety  there  was 
cause  for  alarm,  when  the  exiled  King  and  his  family  having  taken  refuge  in 
American  vessels,  placed  himself  under  the  protection  of  our  Consulate 
flag  at  Cowes.  There  they  remained  for  several  weeks,  while  the  English 
Cabinet  consulted  as  to  how  best  to  receive  them.  During  this  period  the 
vice-consul,  visiting  the  King  daily  on  the  ship,  having  the  family  at  his 
house  at  Ryde,  aiid  occupying  their  time  with  excursions  about  the  island, 
had  an  interesting  experience.  He  had  earlier  travelled  over  Europe, 
known  many  of  its  celebrities  intimately,  and  was  always  excellent  in  con- 
versation, and  thus  able  to  divert  their  grief.  Sir  Isaac  may  have  thought 
this  an  extravagance  ;  or,  perhaps,  was  too  much  of  a  Liberal  in  politics 
to  approve  these  civilities  to  a  monarch  so  arbitrary. 

While  a  guest  at  my  father's  summer  house  at  Newton,  he  found  in 
the  pastor  of  the  church  there — Parson  Homer — an  excellent,  learned,  but 
somewhat  eccentric  clergyman,  who  had  been  his  schoolmate  at  the  Boston 
Latin  School.  The  parson,  who  frequently  came  to  dinner,  was  apt  to  be 
a  little  long  oyer  his  grace,  to  the  cooling  of  the  soup.    The  renewal  of 


^ 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,   BART. 


57 


their  early  friendship  was  a  pleasure  to  both,  and  the  dominie  being  versed 
in  biblical  lore,  the  admiral  added  much  to  the  enjoyment  of  his  later 
years  by  the  gift  of  a  rare  and  costly  Bible,  with  a  letter  still  extant. 

His  interest  in  the  school  and  his  classmates  never  ebbed.  His  name 
is  found  on  its  books  in  1808,  the  year  he  was  made  Master  of  Arts  at 
Harvard  College.  Upon  his  last  visit  to  Boston,  not  long  before  he  died, 
he  went  to  the  school,  then  in  School  Street.  One  of  the  then  pupils.  Dr. 
Parsons,  the  peerless  translator  of  Dante,  tells  me  he  remembers  him  well ; 
and  that  Sir  Isaac,  with  hand  upon  his  head,  devoutly  invoked  a  blessing 
in  his  behalf. 

What  remains  of  his  correspondence  here  is  creditable  to  his  good 
sense,  to  his  ability  as  a  writer,  to  his  broad  sympathies.  Soon  after  the 
war  ended,  he  established  in  our  Massachusetts  waters  a  school-ship  for 
our  mates  and  skippers  to  learn  the  art  of  navigation.  The  barge  Clio, 
which  he  purchased  for  the  purpose,  was  commanded  by  his  kinsman. 
Captain  Hector  Coffin,  of  the  Newburyport  branch  of  the  name,  who 
was  imprudent  enough,  in  1826,  to  go  up  in  her  to  Quebec,  flaunting  the 
American  Hag.  These  generous  projects  involved  large  expenditures,  and 
when  his  brother,  General  John  Coffin,  of  New  Brunswick,  urged  him  to 
abandon  what  gave  umbrage  at  home,  he  cheerfully  acquiesced  in  giving 
up  what  had  cost  him  several  thousands  of  pounds.  His  desire  to  be  of 
service  to  the  land  of  his  birth,  nevertheless,  prompted  other  beneficent 
efforts.  He  sent  over  to  Brighton  Barefoot,  Serab,  and  several  other 
race-horses  that  had  recently  triumphed  in  the  Derby  and  other  well-known 
courses  to  improve  our  breed.  He  brought  over  in  crates,  from  English 
waters,  turbot,  the  first  of  the  European  variety  in  our  own,  and  imported 
rare  fruits  and  plants  for  our  horticulturists. 

These  horses,  sent  out  with  a  groom  to  take  charge  of  them,  were  kept 
in  the  stables  of  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural  Society  at  Brighton. 
Barefoot  had  many  descendants,  Serab,  if  any,  but  few.  For  many  years 
having  been  the  fortunate  possessor  of  one  of  the  Barefoot's  colts,  it  grew 
up  to  be  perfect  for  the  saddle.  One  day  when  on  his  back,  an  elderly 
body  crossing  the  street,  not  having  heard  the  clatter  of  his  hoofs  upon  the 
pavement,  suddenly  changed  her  purpose,  retracing  her  steps  to  regain  the 
side  she  had  left.  The  horse,  checked  to  avoid  her,  struck  his  hock  against 
the  curb-stone,  and  was  spavined.  When  broken  to  the  shafts,  and  left  for 
a  moment  at  the  door,  he  threaded  his  way  through  a  crowded  thoroughfare 
to  the  stable-yard,  half  a  mile,  without  a  scratch.  It  is  a  pleasure  thus  to 
record  in  print  the  virtues  of  that  excellent  colt  whose  paternal  pedigree 
was  almost  as  long  as  that  of  the  Coffins. 


58 


THE  LIFE  OF 


t  -M 


■I  ''.i 


(;• '.   til 


He  was  warmly  attached  to  Nantucket,  where  his  ancestors  and  their 
descendants  had  dwelt  for  so  many  generations.  He  visited  the  place 
and  became  acquainted  with  his  kinsfolk,  and  in  1826  appropriated  twelve 
thousand  dollars  (;^a,5oo),  afterward  increased  till  now  about  ;^io,ooo, 
as  a  fund  for  a  school  for  the  instruction  of  the  posterity  of  Tristram.  This 
includes  nearly  every  native-born  child  of  the  island,  besides,  perhaps, 
thousands  in  every  State  in  the  Union,  who  by  future  residence  may 
come  within  its  benefits.  The  Academy  still  flourishes,  though  if  our 
present  system  of  public  instruction  had  then  reached  its  present  develop- 
ment, his  benefactions  would  probably  have  assumed  another  form. 

Soon  after  his  mishaps,  to  which  we  have  already  alluded,  when  burned 
out  of  the  cotton  ship  when  near  Charleston,  in  1829,  he  came  to  Boston, 
and  when  some  fresh  attacks  of  his  painful  disorder  induced  by  the  ex- 
posure permitted,  he  hastened  back  to  England. 

The  Duke  of  Clarence,  William  the  Fourth,  had  succeeded  his  brother 
George  on  the  throne.  His  long  connection  with  the  Navy  attached  to 
him  the  officers  who  had  grown  old  with  himself.  It  was  said  that  when 
the  King  was  urged  to  create  new  peers  to  carry  the  Reform  Bill  through 
the  Lords,  Sir  Isaac  was  high  up  on  his  list  as  Earl  of  Magdalen.  The 
House  of  Lords  gave  in  and  voted  for  the  Reform  Bill,  and  the  proposed 
new  peers  were  not  created.  Sir  Isaac  did  not  long  survive  his  royal  friend. 
The  23d  of  June,  1839,  at  the  age  of  eighty,  he  died  at  Cheltenham,  in 
Gloucestershire,  and  there  he  was  buried.  Lady  Coffin  preceded  him  to 
the  tomb  on  the  27th  of  January  of  that  year.  His  brother,  General  John 
Coffin,  died  the  year  before,  his  death  having  taken  place  June  12,  1838,  in 
New  Brunswick. 

Save  when  in  his  own  cabins  afloat,  or  in  his  official  residences  in  com- 
mand of  posts.  Sir  Isaac  rarely  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  a  home  of  his  own, 
unless  as  such  may  be  regarded  his  lodgings  in  London  while  in  Parlia- 
ment. He  found  a  ready  welcome  under  the  roofs  of  his  friends  and  kins- 
folk. His  sister,  Mrs.  Mundy,  had  a  charming  abode.  Holly  Bank,  in 
Hampshire,  of  which  I  caught  a  glimpse  when  passing  its  gates,  and 
where  another  brother  of  mine  and  his  wife  visited  her.  He  had  known 
her  sons,  the  Barwells,  pleasantly  in  India.  He  chanced  to  be  present, 
also,  at  the  hotel  p.t  Cheltenham  when  Sir  Isaac  died.  There,  and  at 
Bath,  where  some  of  his  cousins  resided,  had  been  his  frequent  resort,  and 
there  he  had  come  to  end  his  days  near  the  family  sepulchre. 

But  I  have  already  exceeded  my  limit ;  much  omitted  may  find  place  in 
some  future  publication.  I  have  not  aimed  at  eulogy  or  indulged  in  illus- 
tration, but  simply  recited  facts  that  have  come  to  me  from  diligent  study 


m% 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,    BART. 


99 


of  the  subject,  many  of  which  had  escaped  previous  investigation.  The 
memory  of  a  Boston  boy,  who  by  dint  of  his  own  native  energy  attained 
the  highest  rank  in  the  British  navy,  a  generous  bei^efactor  whose  works 
still  bear  witness  to  the  noble  impulse  that  prompted  them,  thus  rescued 
from  oblivion  in  your  publications,  may  find  interested  readers  not  only 
among  his  numberless  kinsfolk,  but  even  among  a  larger  circle  of  readers. 
The  engraving  of  Sir  Isaac  which  accompanies  this  memoir  is  taken 
from  a  portrait  by  Gilbert  Stuart,  that  formerly  belonged  to  his  cousin, 
Thomas  C.  Aniory,  on  Franklin  Place,  Boston,  and  in  my  earliest  recoUec* 
tion  hung  in  the  parlor  of  the  house  of  my  aunt,  Mrs.  Amory,  the  sister 
of  Admiral  Sir  Samuel  Hood  Linzee,  cousin  of  Lords  Hood  and  Bridport. 
It  now  forms  part  of  the  precious  ancestral  gallery  of  my  cousin,  Mr.  Wil- 
liam Amory,  of  Beacon  Street,  Boston.  The  portrait  in  the  Coffin  School 
at  Nantucket  of  its  founder,  by  Sir  William  Beechey,  presents  Sir  Isaac 
at  a  later  period  of  life. 


6o 


THE  LIFE  OF 


XIII. 


THE  COFFIN   COATS  OF  ARMS. 


''   IIP 


The  Coffins  have  always  claimed  coat-armor  in  hereditary  right.  That 
branch  descended  from  Nathaniel  Coffin,  father  of  Admiral  Sir  Isaac,  in- 
herit the  right  through  the  Admiral's  grant,  and  are  unquestionably  en- 
titled to  wear  his  coat  of  arms,  but  this  differs  essentially  in  its  emblazon- 
ment from  the  more  ancient  ones. 

Authorities  upon  English  heraldry  give,  as  belonging  to  the  Coffins  of 
Devonshire,  a  description  which,  in  its  combination,  is  unlike  any  other 
family  bearings,  and  consists  of  bezants  and  cross-crosslets. 

While  they  differ  as  to  order  of  arrangement  and  combination,  the 
number  of  bezants  is  never  less  than  three  nor  more  than  four,  and  the 
cross-crosslets  vary  from  five  upward  to  a  sem6e  which  is  an  indefinite 
convenient  number. 

Th'j  bezants  are  a  roundle  representing  the  ancient  gold  coin  of  By- 
zantium, current  in  England  from  the  tenth  century  to  the  time  of  Ed- 
ward III.,  and  was  probably  introduced  into  coat-armor  by  the  crusaders. 
The  white  roundle  exhibited  upon  Admiral  Sir  Isaac's  arms  is  of  silver, 
and  is  usually  called  a  plate,  although  there  were  silver  bezants  used  as 
coin.    The  cross-crosslets  are  crosses  crossed  on  each  arm. 

The  crests  and  mottoes  are  of  quite  modern  origin. 

The  six  coats  of  arms  in  the  name  in  "  Burke's  General  Armory  "  are 
as  follows : 

1.  Coffin,  Magdalen  Islands,  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  since  of  Titley 
Court,  County  Hereford,  baronet.  Azure,  sem6e  of  crosses  crosslet,  or ; 
two  batons  in  saltire,  encircled  with  laurel  branches,  gold,  between  three 
plates.  Crest :  Or,  the  stem  of  a  ship  ;  or,  a  pigeon,  wings  endorsed,  ar- 
gent, in  the  beak  a  sprig  of  laurel,  vert.  Motto  :  "  Extant  recte  factis 
prcemia."  These  arms  are  limited  in  the  grant  to  Sir  Isaac  Coffin  and  the 
descendants  of  his  father,  Nathaniel. 

2.  Coffin,  Pine,  Portlege,  County  Devon,  temp.  William  I.  The  pres- 
ent representative  of  this  most  ancient  family,  as  well  as  of  the  families 
Pine  of  East  Downe  and  Pepysof  Impington,  is  the  Rev.  John  Pine-Coffin, 
of  Portledge.    Azure,  semfe  of  crosses  crosslet,  or ;  three  bezants  quar- 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


6i 


tering  the  arms  of  Pine,  Downe,  Kelway,  Ilcombe,  Winslade,  Birt, 
Hondesniore,  Appleton.  Gould,  Penfound,  and  Pepys.  Crests  :  First,  a 
martlet,  azure,  charged  on  the  breast  with  two  bezants,  a  mullet  for  differ- 
ence ;  second,  a  pine  tree  proper.     Motto  :  "  In  tempestate  floresco." 

3.  Coffin,  Portland,  County  Dorset.  Argent,  a  chevron  between 
three  mullets,  pierced  sable. 

4.  Coffin,  Somersetshire.    Gules,  two  bars  embattled,  or. 

5.  Coffin,  Somersetshire.  Argent,  three  bezants  and  five  crosses  cross- 
let,  or. 

6.  Coffyn.  Azure,  four  bezants  within  five  crosses  crosslet,  or ;  crest, 
a  bird,  or,  between  two  cinque-foils,  or,  stalked  and  leaved,  vert. 

Sir  Isaac's  visit  to  Nantucket,  1826,  when  he  founded  his  school  there, 
was  commemorated  by  a»bronze  medal  he  had  struck  off  on  the  occasion, 
bearing  an  admirable  effigy  of  Tristram  in  full  length,  and  in  the  graceful 
garb  of  his  period,  on  a  base  be-'-ing  the  date  1642.  The  effigy  is  encircled 
with  the  inscription  :  *'  Tristram  Coffin,  the  first  of  the  race  that  settled  in 
America ; "  on  the  obverse  four  hands  in  fraternal  grasp  surrounded  with  the 
injunction  :  "  Do  honor  to  his  name-  -be  united."  At  the  same  time  he 
had  printed  and  widely  distributed  among  the  descendants  of  Tristram  a 
handsome  broadside,  relating  in  brief  the  principal  incidents  of  his  life  and 
of  his  origin  as  then  known. 

The  broadside  presents  the  arms  of  Tristram,  with  the  facsimile  of  his 
signature.  Azure,  four  bezants  within  five  crosses  crosslet,  or ;  crest,  a 
bird,  or,  between  two  cinque-foils,  argent,  stalked  and  leaved,  vert. 
These  are  said  to  have  been  the  arms  of  Sir  William,  who  died  in  1638, 
and  whose  monument  still  stands  at  Standon,  in  Essex,  of  which  royal 
manor  he  was  high  steward.  This  is  the  sixth  coat  of  arms  of  the  Coffins 
described  in  the  "  General  Armory,"  and  may  have  been  taken  from  "  Wea- 
ver's Funeral  Monuments,"  who  gives  the  inscription,  or  from  "The  College 
of  Anns." 

The  arms  of  Sir  Isaac,  granted  in  1804,  when  created  a  baronet,  also 
on  the  broadside,  havpt  already  been  stated,  being  the  first  described  in  the 
'•(ieneral  Armory  "  of  the  name,  as  given  above. 

In  T/ie  New  England  Historical  and  Genealogical  Register  for  Octo- 
ber, 1881,  reprinted  separately,  is  an  article  entitled  "The  Name  and 
Armorials  of  the  Coffin  Family,"  by  Mr.  John  Coffin  Jones  Brown.  The 
article  is  replete  with  information  upon  his  subject.  The  difference  be- 
tween the  arms  of  North  Devon,  1349  to  1699,  and  South  seems  simply 
the  addition  of  a  fourth  bezant  in  chief.  Conjectures  are  not  proof,  but 
the  suggestion  is  reasonable,  that  the  fourth  bezant,  which  is  in  the  centre 


f. 


■^1 


JS 


mm  I 


'til'' 


62 


THE  LIFE  OF 


fe 


WS' 


chief,  may  have  been  adopted  to  distinguish  the  Brixton  branch  from  that 
of  Portledge. 

Before  me  are  two  mementos  of  the  second  centennial  of  the  death 
of  Tristram,  in  1881 — a  plate  and  bowl,  handsomely  decorated  in  gold, 
with  the  coat  of  arms  of  the  South  Devonshire  Coffins  emblazoned  on  each, 
with  the  four  bezants  between  the  five  crosses  crosslet,  or,  with  this  motto : 
"  Per  tenebras  speramus  lumen  de  lumine."  This  is  the  motto  of  Hector 
Coffin — perhaps  adopted  by  him  in  some  moment  of  discouragement  at 
finding  his  quest  of  the  parentage  of  Tristram's  grandfather,  Nicholas,  on 
a  wrong  scent.  I  may  be  equally  unfortunate  ;  but  his  efforts  and  mine, 
if  not  attended  with  success^  may  illumine  the  path  through  the  darkness 
to  the  truth. 


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ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,   BART. 


63 


XIV. 


TUCKETT'S  VISITATIONS  OF   DEVON,  Page  207. 


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64 


THE  LIFE  OF 


XV. 


COFFIN   DATES. 


Richard,  iioo,  1327,  county  record*. 
Sir  Hugo,  of  Combe  Coffin,  1189-99. 
Sir  Geoffry,  Henry  HI.,  iai6-7a. 

.Sir  William  Pole,  of  386  Portlage. 
Richard,  2  Knight  fees  of  Robert  the  King's  son. 
Richard,  a  Knight  fees  of  Henry  Herring. 
Richard,  34  Edward  I.,  1396. 
John,  8  Edward  H.,  1315. 
David,  19  Edward  III.,  1346. 
Michael,  40  Edward  HI.,  1367. 
William. 


John  =  Thomasia,  d.  of  Hathey. 

William     ss  d.  John  Cockementon. 
Richard     —  Alice,  d.  of  John  Sambon. 

I  WiUiam. 

I  John       =  Elizabeth,  co-d.  of  Phillippa  Hingeston. 

/  James    =  Ann,  d.  of  Sir  Wra.  Chudleigh. 
•<  Thomas. 

I  Richard  =  Wilmot,  d.  of  Sir  Richard  Chudleigh. 
William,  son  of  above  = 
John  =  Mary,  d.  of  Rob.  Cary,  of  Clovelly. 
Richard. 


OTHER   MENTION   OF   COFFIN. 


ill   m 


Richard,  deed  1254,  Henry  III. 
William,  lord  of  Alwenter,  1272,  Edward  I. 
Sir  Richard,  deed  of  Edward  I. 
Richard  =  131 1. 

'John   —  1318. 

Roger.  • 

Lawrence. 

Richard. 
David  a  Thomasia,  33  Edward  III.,  1359. 
David,  SOB  and  heir  of  David,  1376. 


John  and  Thomasia,  wife  living,  1437. 
Richard,  Sheriff  of  Devon,  3  Henry  VIII.,  7511. 
Richard,  Sheriff  of  Devon,  36  Charles  II.,  1683. 

J  John. 

I  William  a  Margaret,  d.  of  Thomas  Gifiard. 
Eldest  son. 

John  of  Hyde  in  Northam. 
Richard  =  Honor,  d.  Ed.  I'    'cauxof  Fadstow. 
James,  of  Markleigh. 
Elizabeth,  b.  1566,  d.  161     -  vVyke  of  Som. 


mi 


1 

i|;|i  eli 

Hi 

HEROLD'S  VISITATION  OF   DEVON,  1620,   P.    64. 


Rich;ud         B  Wilmot  Chudleigh. 

John  =  Elizabeth,  d.  Henry  Harding. 

Edward. 

Jane. 

James            =  Mary  Cole. 

Elizabeth. 

John             =  Mary  Cary. 

Richard. 

■  Mary         =  John  WoUacomb,  1589. 

Leonard. 

Prudence  =  Berrie  of  Berrie. 

Edward. 

Wilmot      =  William  Addington   m  Fvrington, 

James. 

IS90. 

Henry. 

'  John          m  Gi«ce  and  Richard  Berrie. 

Edward. 

Humphrey,  b.  1605,  wasted  liii  estate. 

WUliam. 

Giles,  b.  1 6 10. 

Seven  daughters,'Mary,  Ibbot,  Wilmot,' Elizabeth, 

Nicholas,  b.  1613. 

Christian,  Julian,  Katherine. 

Richard,  1389  m  Elisabeth  Loveli. 

ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,   BART. 


«$ 


CHURCH   MONUMENTS. 


John,  1572-1698. 

Richard,  s.  of  Richard,  s.  of  John,  1659-60. 

Richard,  1569-1629,  age  48. 

Elizabeth,  his  wife,  1571-1651,  age  80. 

Ruth,  1601-49,  age  41,  wife  of  Hockin. 


Richard,  1699-99, 

Bridget,  widow  of  Kellond,  1676-97, 

John,  1678-1703. 

Ann,  widow  of  Richard,  1655-1705, 


BAPTISMS   FROM   PARISH   REGISTER. 


1569  Wilmot,  d,  John. 

1573  Prudence. 

1574  Richard.  *- 
1576  John. 

1592  Mary,  d.  Richard. 
1592  John,  i.  Richard. 
1603  Humphrey,  s.  John. 
1605 ,  d.  John. 

1607  William,  s.  Richard,  Esq. 

1608  Edward,  s.  Richard,  Esq. 
1618  Jane,  d.  John. 


1619  Eliiabeth,  d.  John. 
1691  Gartred. 

1654  Ruth,  d.  Richard,  Esq, 

1655  Elisabeth,  d.  Richard,  Esq. 

1657  Jane,  d.  Richard,  Esq. 

1658  Mary,  d.  Richard,  Esq. 

1659  Richard,'5  and  2,  d.  Richard,  Esq. 

1660  Garthred,  d.  Richard. 
1669  Ann,  d.  Richard. 
1664  Ann,  d.  Richard. 


MARRIAGES   FROM   REGISTERS. 


1589  Mr.  Richard  Coffin  and  Elis.  Loveis. 

1589  Mary,  d,  of  John  Wollacomb. 

1596  Wilmot,  d.  John  and  Mary  Cary  =3  Farrington. 

1607  Mary,  d.  of  Richard  s  Moor*. 

1609  Ebbot  =  Levalles. 

1613  Margaret  =  Richard  Pyne. 


1616  John,  s.  and  h,  of  Richard  : 

1617  Wilmot      =  Weekes. 
1623  Elisabeth  =  Fortescue. 
i6a8  Eliiabeth  b  Crust. 
1633  Katberine  b  Hocking. 


I  Harding. 


BURULS    FROM   PARISH   REGISTER. 


I5S5  Richard,  Esq. 
1569  Wilmot,  widow, 
1571  John,  s.  John. 
1591  William  Addington. 
1608  John,  Esq. 
1617  Richard,  Esq. 
1699  John,  Esq. 


1654  Elisabeth,  d.  Rkrhard. 

1660  Richard,  s.  and  h.  of  Richard,  Esq. 

1662  Ann,  d.  Richard. 

1663  James,  gent 

1665  Dorothy,  wife  of  Richard. 

1666  Elisabeth,  d.  of  Richard. 


66 


THE  LIFE  OF 


XVI. 


THE    REFORMATION. 


.  If 


ill., 


Is  ■  •?! 


Ill-' II 


!i^:^ 


Sir  William  Coffin  was  born  about  1480.  The  British  realm  was 
then  all  Catholic  :  bell,  book,  and  candle,  high  mass,  and  confessionals, 
were  paramount  in  chapel  and  church.  Convents  and  other  monastic  in- 
stitutions, with  their  cloistered  walls  and  hidden  ways,  possessed  a  large 
portion  of  its  most  fertile  soil,  its  most  picturesque  territory.  Religion,  all 
the  more  sincere  and  honest  for  adversity,  grew  corrupt  with  a  pampered 
priesthood,  lost  the  respect  and  confidence  of  the  laity.  Their  love  of 
domination  and  arbitrary  exactions  created  disaffection,  and  paved  the  way 
for  a  cross  no  longer  a  symbol.  The  indulgences  sold  by  I^eo  the  Tenth 
to  build  St.  Peter's,  glut  his  own  extravagance  and  the  greed  of  his  favorites, 
aroused  Christendom  to  a  sense  of  the  universal  degeneracy  that  made  a 
farce  of  faith. 

If  the  motives  of  Henry  the  Eighth  were  not  of  the  purest,  the  power 
of  the  throne  and  the  good  sense  of  the  people  co-operated  to  cast  off  a 
yoke  become  insupportable.  England,  insular  and  enlightened,  took  a 
leading  part  in  the  Reformation.  From  our  present  distant  view,  events 
must  have  moved  rapidly  to  consummate  so  great  a  revolution  in  so  brief 
a  period.  Conservative  minds  clung  with  tenacity  to  their  old  faith  and 
institutions,  and  there  was  so  much  in  the  new  repugnant  and  repulsive 
that  it  was  only  brought  about  amid  great  tribulation.  Still,  within  thirty 
years  England,  in  1530  Catholic,  became  Protesta.nt. 

The  presence  at  court  of  Sir  William  Collin,  the  intimate  relations  be- 
tween him  and  Henry  for  twenty  years,  shown  in  the  bequest  of  his  imple- 
ments of  the  chase,  of  which  they  no  doubt  shared  in  the  toils  and  pleas- 
ure often  together,  the  position  he  held  at  the  coronation  of  Ann  Bo!eyn, 
give  us  reason  to  believe  that  his  own  theological  opinions  coincided  with 
those  of  the  King. 

The  bloated  Bluebeard  that  occupies  his  niche  in  history  differs  so  es- 
sentially in  appearance  and  character  from  that  kingly  form  and  chivalric 
spirit,  that  intellectual  expression  and  amiable  disposition,  that  distinguished 
Henry  when  he  mounted  the  throne,  thut  some  apology  seems  called  for  in 
taking  any  pride  that  Sir  William  Coffin  was  his  friend.  Coffin  died  in 
1538,  and  the  King  had  hardly  entered  upon  that  bloody  career  now  re- 


m-: 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


67 


garded  with  execration.  In  his  earlier  manhood  few  monarchs  had  been  so 
much  beloved  and  respected.  But,  thwarted  in  his  reasonable  hopes  of 
domestic  happiness  by  a  marriage  not  of  his  own  choosing,  he  became 
soured,  arbitrary,  self-indulgent.  Still,  the  law  of  England,  that  kings  can 
do  no  wrong,  is  apt  to  blind  loyal  subjects  to  nice  distinctions,  so  far  as  re- 
spects them ;  and  the  favors  conferred  on  Coffin  by  the  King  may  have 
made  him  less  disposed  to  criticise. 

He  had  married  I^ady  Mannors,  of  Derbyshire,  for  which  county,  in 
1529,  he  was  chosen  Knight  of  the  Shire  to  Parliament.  While  on  his 
way  to  attend  its  sessions,  passing  by  a  churchyard,  he  observed  near  the 
road  a  multitude  of  people  standing  idle.  Inquiring  the  cause,  he  was  told 
that  they  had  brought  a  corpse  thither  to  be  buried,  but  the  priest  refused 
to  do  his  office  unless  they  delivered  him  the  poor  man's  cow,  the  only 
quick  goods  he  left,  for  a  mortuary.  Sir  William  sent  for  the  priest,  and 
required  him  to  do  his  office  to  the  dead,  who  peremptorily  refused  unless 
he  had  his  mortuary  first.  Thereupon  he  ordered  the  priest  to  be  put  into 
the  poor  man's  grave,  and  earth  to  be  thrown  in  upon  him  ;  and,  as  he 
still  persisted  in  his  refusal,  there  was  still  more  earth  thrown  in,  until  the 
obstinate  priest  was  either  altogether,  or  well-nigh,  suffocated. 

Now,  thus  to  handle  a  priest  in  those  days  was  a  very  audacious  pro- 
ceeding ;  but  Sir  William,  with  the  favor  he  had  at  court  and  the  interest 
he  had  in  the  House,  diverted  the  storm.  He  so  lively  represented  the 
mischievous  consequences  of  priests'  arbitrarily  demanding  mortuaries,  that 
the  then  Parliament,  taking  it  into  their  serious  consideration,  prohibited 
priests  from  exacting  more  than  from  three  shillings  to  ten,  according  to 
the  property  left.  This  act  against  excessive  mortuaries  is  classed  by  the 
historians,  with  two  more,  as  bringing  about  the  Reformation  and  Eng- 
land's declaration  of  independence  of  the  Papal  throne.  It  becomes  of 
some  importance  as  an  historical  event  to  be  remembered.  W  *  mention 
it  here  as  recalling  similar  incidents  in  the  life  of  Tristram,  when  he  took 
upon  himself  the  sole  responsibility  of  saving  the  wreckage  at  Nantucket ; 
of  Isaac,  when  he  fought  with  the  Brabanders  against  Austria  or  saved  the 
burning  ship  by  forcing  the  men  back  to  their  quarters. 


':m 


,vr 


68 


THE  LIFE  OF 


XVII. 

ALLEN  COFFIN'S  CALL  OF  TRISTRAM'S  DESCENDANTS 
TO  THE  SECOND  CENTENNIAL  OF  HIS  DEATH  IN 
1881. 


!'.!;• 


I'i  '"M 


I::' 

1%,  ■  ■ 


When  I  recently  read  the  invitation  of  Mr.  Allen  Coffin,  in  TAe  In- 
quirer^  of  Nantucket,  for  December  6,  1879,  to  the  then  proposed  gather- 
ing  of  the  race  at  Nantucket  to  commemorate  the  death  of  Tristram,  in 
1 68 1,  it  seemed  so  full  of  the  information  the  readers  of  the  present  publi- 
cation might  need,  that  I  wrote  to  request  him  to  permit  me  to  insert  it 
wholly  or  in  part.  He  generously  consented.  In  the  faith  that  we  have 
all  but  one  motive — to  bring  within  the  reach  of  all  of  Tristram's  descend- 
ants what  sheds  any  additional  light  on  his  character  and  career — it  is  here 
presented.  I  find  it  difficult  to  omit  any  part  of  it,  unless  what  in  other 
forms  has  already  found  place. 


A  LEAF  FROM  THE  LIFE  OF  MY  GREATGRANDFATHER'S  GREAT- 

GRANDFATHER. 


By  Allen  Coffin. 


With  the  death  of  Edward  the  Confessor  was  practically  terminated 
the  Saxon  dynasty  of  England.  William,  Duke  of  Normandy,  whom  Ed- 
ward had  appointed  his  successor,  landed  at  Pevensey,  on  the  28th  of 
September,  1066.  He  met  Harold  on  the  field  near  Hastings,  and,  after 
a  long  battle,  Harold  fell  pierced  with  an  arrow,  and  his  soldiers  fled  from 
the  field  panic-stricken.  The  Norman  conquest  was  thus  achieved,  and 
William  the  Conqueror  soon  after  crowned  king. 

Accompanying  William  was  an  army  of  sixty  thousand  men,  volunteers 
from  adjacent  parts  of  the  continent,  who  crowded  to  his  camp  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Dive,  eager  to  share  in  the  vicissitudes  of  the  campaign.  This 
was  a  wonderfully  romantic  age,  and  William  was  aided  by  many  sovereigns 
and  princes,  and  a  vast  body  of  nobility  from  the  different  kingdoms.  Those 
who  accompanied  the  Conqueror  became  the  barons,  and  knights,  and 
esquires,  and  sergeants  of  feudal  times,  and  in  the  divisions  of  the  riches 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


09 


of  the  conquered  domain  became  proprietors  of  vast  estates,  castles,  ab- 
beys, villages,  and  even  whole  towns. 

There  was  one  man  among  William's  conquering  host  in  whom  most  of 
this  large  assembly  will  ever  have  an  abiding  interest.  He  was  a  general 
of  the  army,  and  his  name  was  Richard  Coffyn.  From  what  province  he 
came,  or  what  ancestry  he  boasted,  or  what  life  he  had  pursued  prior  to 
his  adventurous  campaign,  are  facts  which  no  friendly  hand  has  yet  lifted 
from  the  shrouds  of  oblivion.  He  shared  in  the  spoils  of  the  conquest, 
became  a  tenant  of  the  crown,  and  his  name  was  written  in  the  Domesday 
Book.  All  of  the  followers  of  William  were  noble  in  right  of  their  victory 
and  foreign  birth,  and  the  parish  of  Alwington,  in  the  county  of  Devon, 
appears  to  have  been  conferred  upon  him,  with  the  title  of  Sir  Richard 
Coffin,  Knight,  etc.  Portledge  was  the  Coffin  manor,  and,  through  a  period 
of  more  than  eight  centuries,  streaming  down  to  the  present  time,  an  un- 
broken line  of  inheritance  has  been  preserved. 

In  the  history  of  the  County  of  Devon,  in  England,  honorable  mention 
is  made  of  Sir  Ellis  Coffin,  Knight  of  Clist  and  Ingarby,  in  the  days  of 
King  John  ;  of  Sir  Richard  Coffin,  of  Alwington,  in  the  time  of  Henry  II.; 
of  Sir  Jeffrey  Coffin  and  Combe  Coffin  under  Henry  III.,  and  numerous 
other  knightly  descendants  during  successive  reigns,  till  the  time  of  Henry 
VIII.  Sir  William  Coffin,  Sheriff  of  Devonshire,  was  highly  preferred  at 
the  court  of  Henry  VIII.,  and  accompanied  the  king  as  one  of  the  eighteen 
chosen  by  him  on  a  tournament  in  France  in  15 19.  He  was  Master  of  the 
Horse  at  the  coronation  of  Anne  Boleyn,  and  a  gentleman  of  the  Privy 
Council.  He  was  also  High  Steward  of  the  Manor  and  Liberties  of  Standon, 
County  of  Hertford.  At  his  death  he  bequeathed  to  his  royal  master,  King 
Henry,  with  whom  he  had  been  in  especial  grace  and  favor,  all  of  his  hawks, 
and  his  best  horses  and  cart.  As  he  left  no  issue,  he  conveyed  the  Manor 
of  East  Higginston,  County  of  Devon,  to  his  eldest  brother's  son,  Richard 
Coffin,  Esq.,  of  Portledge.  Sir  William's  monument,  in  Standon  Church, 
is  mentioned  in  '*  Weever's  Funeral  Monuments  "  (p.  534). 

Nicholas  Coffin,  of  Brixton  (one  account  says  Butler's  Parish),  in  Dev- 
onshire, in  his  will,  dated  September  12,  16 13,  and  proved  November  3, 
1613,  mentions  his  wife  Joan  and  sons  Peter,  Nicholas,  Tristram,  John, 
and  daughter  Anne.  He  was  the  grandfather  to  the  emigrant  to  New  Eng- 
land. 

Peter  Coffin,  of  Brixton,  in  his  will,  dated  December  i,  1627,  and 
proved  March  13,  i6a8,  provided  that  his  wife,  Joan  Thember,  shall  have 
possession  of  the  land  during  her  life,  and  then  the  said  property  shall  go 
to  his  son  and  heir,  Tristram,  "  who  is  to  be  provided  for  according  to  his 


70 


THE  LIFE  OF 


»  :■; 


''  m 


degree  and  calling."  His  son  John  is  to  have  certain  property  when  he 
becomes  twenty  years  of  age.  He  mentions  his  daughters  Joan,  De- 
borah, Eunice,  and  Mary,  and  refers  to  his  tenement  in  Butler's  Parish 
called  Silferhay.     He  was  the  father  of  the  emigrant. 

John  Coffin,  of  Brixton,  an  uncle  of  the  emigrant,  who  died  without 
issue,  in  his  will,  dated  January  4,  1628,  and  proved  April  3,  1628,  ap- 
points his  nephew,  Tristram  Coffin,  his  executor,  and  gives  legacies  to  all 
of  Tristram's  sisters,  all  under  twelve  years  of  age. 

I  have  been  led  to  seek  the  cause  of  Tristram's  removal  to  America, 
but  upon  that  subject  the  oracles  are  silent  and  tongues  dumb.  Was  it 
that  he  might  enjoy  a  larger  religious  liberty,  or  to  escape  persecution,  or 
was  it  the  same  love  of  adventure  that  induced  his  ancestor,  Sir  Richard 
Coffin,  to  embark  with  the  Duke  of  Normandy  six  centuries  before  ?  Let 
us  look  at  the  contemporaneous  history  of  England.  We  shall  find  that 
the  time  which  covers  Tristram's  mature  life  in  England,  about  fifteen 
years,  marks  a  most  eventful  period— the  moment  when  intellectual  free« 
dom  was  claimed  unconditionally  by  Englishmen  as  an  inalienable  right, 
and  when  ecclesiastical  forms  were  not  spared  by  the  revolution  of  the 
times. 

James  I.,  whose  reign  had  been  adorned  by  Shakespeare  and  Bacon, 
died  in  1625,  when  Tristram  was  twenty  years  old.  Charles  I.  had  been 
upon  the  throne  but  two  years  when  Tristram's  father  died.  The  Petition 
of  Right,  in  1628,  sought  to  limit  the  powers  of  the  Crown,  and  the  King 
soon  after  abolished  the  Parliament  and  established  the  Star  Chamber. 
Puritanism  was  making  rapid  strides,  and  large  numbers  of  Puritans  were 
leaving  England.  So  great  was  the  exodus  that  the  King  prohibited  their 
departure,  and  Hampden,  Pym,  and  Cromwell  were  prevented  from  leav- 
ing. About  this  time  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  was  assassinated.  In 
1638  the  Scots,  to  maintain  their  ecclesiastical  rights,  took  up  arms  against 
the  King,  having  formed  the  celebrated  Solemn  League  and  Covenant, 
and  sustained  the  Parliament  in  its  opposition  to  Charles.  The  Earl  of 
Strafford  and  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  as  chief  advisers  of  the  King,  were 
impeached  and  beheaded  (the  former  in  1641,  and  the  latter  in  1644). 
The  Presbyterians,  who  were  now  a  majority  in  the  Commons,  procured  the 
exclusion  of  Bishops  from  the  House  of  Lords,  in  1641,  which  was  followed 
by  an  act  in  1643  entirely  abolishing  Episcopacy,  so  Charles  began  to  re- 
alize that  without  Bishops  there  would  be  no  King.  Under  these  circum- 
stances the  Lord  Parliament  convened. 

The  irrepressible  conflict  between  Charles  and  the  Parliament  came  to 
a  crisis  in  1642,  and  in  August  of  that  year  the  royal  standard  was  raised 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,   BART. 


71 


at  Nottingham.  The  King  was  generally  supported  by  the  nobility,  the 
landed  gentry,  the  High  Church  party,  and  the  Catholics ;  and  the  Farlia* 
ment  was  sustained  by  the  mercantile  and  middle  classes,  and  the  lower  or- 
der of  the  great  towns.  On  which  side  of  this  conflict  would  Tristram 
Coffin  most  naturally  have  gone  ?  He  was  of  the  landed  gentry,  and,  I 
think,  a  High  Churchman.  Conformably  to  his  father's  will,  he  was  to  be 
provided  for  "  according  to  his  degree  and  calling."  He  must  therefore  have 
had  a  calling — a  profession — he  may  have  taken  holy  orders.  He  was  un> 
questionably  a  royalist  and  a  Cavalier,  and  the  very  year  of  the  appeal  to 
arms,  1642,  after  the  conflict  had  been  waged,  Tristram  Coflin,  at  the  age 
of  thirty-seven,  left  all  of  his  comfortable  estates  in  Old  England  and  em- 
barked for  America,  bringing  with  him  his  wife  and  five  small  children,  his 
mother,  then  aged  fifty-eight,  and  two  unmarried  sisters,  and  none  of  them 
ever  returned.  I  believe  that,  having  embraced  the  royal  cause,  he  was 
compelled  to  leave  England,  and  took  with  him  all  of  his  near  relatives  ; 
that  his  valuable  estates  at  Dorsetshire  and  at  Brixton,  the  tenements  in 
Butler's  Parish,  mentioned  in  his  father's  and  uncle's  wills,  were  seques- 
trated. That  he  was  a  leading  spirit  in  the  time  of  Charles  J.,  and  proved 
his  loyalty  by  unmistakable  acts  which  rendered  him  obnoxious  to  the 
Roundheads  and  Parliament  fanatics,  I  have  unshaken  confidence. 

He  was  rich  in  England — he  was  otherwise  when  landed  in  America. 
He  married  Dionis  Stevens,  of  Brixton,  County  of  Devon.  He  first  settled 
at  Salisbury,  Mass.,  and  the  same  year  removed  to  Haverhill,  where  his 
name  appears  as  a  witness  to  an  Indian  deed  of  that  place,  dated  Novem- 
ber 15,  1642.  Three  more  children  were  born  to  them  in  Haverhill,  and 
one  at  Newbury.  Of  their  nine  children,  the  last  born  in  England  and  the 
first  born  in  America  died  in  infancy.  All  of  the  others  married  and  had 
children.  He  was  licensed  to  keep  an  inn  at  Newbury,  and  a  ferry  across 
the  Merrimac  River.  He  subsequently  returned  to  Salisbury  and  became 
a  county  magistrate. 

He  came  to  Nantucket  in  1659  on  a  prospecting  voyage,  having  ob- 
tained Peter  Folger  from  Martha's  Vineyard  as  an  interpreter  of  the  Indian 
language.  The  company  which  purchased  the  island  was  formed  at  Salis- 
bury after  his  return.  His  son,  James  CoflUn,  who  came  in  the  boat  with 
the  family  of  Thomas  Macy,  which  voyage  Whittier  has  immortalized  in 
his  poem  of  '*  The  Exiles,"  had  doubtless  accompanied  his  father  on  the 
former  voyage.  All  of  the  early  deeds  conveying  land  in  Nantucket  to 
tills  company  recite  first  the  name  of  Tristram  Coflin  as  a  grantee.  He 
and  his  sons  at  one  time  owned  about  one-fourth  part  of  Nantucket,  and 
the  whole  of  Tuckernuck. 


^ 


72 


THE  LIFE  OF 


I  do  not  think  that  personal  religious  persecutions  had  anything  to  do 
with  his  removal  to  Nantucket,  although  he  doubtless  despised  the  in- 
tolerant spirit  of  Essex  County,  which  prompted  the  flights  of  Roger 
Williams  and  Thomas  Macy,  notwithstanding  he  was  at  the  time  a  county 
magistrate. 

His  place  of  residence  in  Nantucket  is  described  in  a  deed  as  being  at 
Northam  or  Coppomet  Harbor  (Capaum  Pond  being  probably  open  to  the 
sea),  near  the  old  shear-pen  gate.  He  doubtless  had  other  houses  in  this 
vicinity,  where  a  village  grew  up  around  him,  and  a  monument  has  re- 
cently  been  placed  upon  the  spot  supposed  to  have  been  his  homestead. 

He  was  the  first  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  island,  having  been  com- 
missioned by  Lord  Lovelace,  on  the  39th  of  June,  167 1;  and,  together 
with  Thomas  Mayhew,  who  was  the  first  Chief  Magistrate  of  Martha's 
Vineyard,  and  two  associates  from  each  island,  constituting  a  General 
Court  for  the  two  islands,  enacted  the  first  prohibitory  liquor  law  of  which 
the  world  has  any  record — a  marvel  of  legal  preciseness  and  acumen. 

He  died  in  Nantucket,  on  the  third  day  of  October,  a.d.  1681,  at  the 
age  of  seventy- six,  and  probably  sleeps  in  the  ancient  burial-ground  on  the 
hill,  just  east  of  Maxcy's  Pond. 

"  The  earliest  ray  of  the  golden  day 
On  that  hallowed  spot  is  cast ; 
And  the  evening  sun  as  he  leaves  the  world 
Looks  kindly  on  that  spot  last." 

One  year  from  next  October  will  occur  the  second  centenary  of  the 
death  of  Tristram  Coflin.  The  multitude  of  descendants  all  over  the 
world  who  claim  him  with  pride  as  their  common  ancestor  may  desire  to 
rear  a  suitable  monument  to  his  memory  in  the  land  where  he  died,  and 
where  his  liberal,  high-minded,  and  Christian  character,  not  inappropriately 
compared  by  Benjamin  Franklin  Folger  with  that  of  William  Penn,  found 
such  practical  opportunity  of  expression  in  his  relations  with  the  Indians. 
I  feel  that  I  echo  the  sentiments  of  the  descendants  in  Nantucket  when 
I  invite  all  the  other  descendants  to  a  grand  reunion  of  the  Coffin  family 
in  Nantucket,  in  October,  1 881,  to  participate  in  exercises  commemorative 
of  a  noble  life — the  life  of  our  common  ancestor,  Tristram  Coffin,  the  first 
of  his  name  in  America. 

PREPARATIONS    IN    1881. 
Thk  Clan. — The  Coffin  Reunion  is  now  so  near  at  hand  that  we  are 
enabled  to  make  some  statements  of  fact  concerning  the  same.    The  New 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


73 


Bedford  brass  Band  will  arrive  on  the  morning  of  the  i6th,  in  time  to  pro- 
ceed  to  Surf-side  where  the  clam-bake  is  to  be  provided.  The  clam-bake 
about  noon  will  be  gotten  up  by  A.  F.  Copeland,  of  Boston,  and  will  in- 
clude chowders,  baked  and  fried  fish  of  the  different  varieties,  lobsters,  etc., 
garnished  with  the  products  of  the  season. 

The  oration  on  this  occasion  will  be  by  Tristram  Coffin,  Esq.,  of 
Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y.,  a  gentleman  well  qualified  by  name  and  attainments 
to  do  ample  justice  to  the  occasion.  An  original  poem  will  be  read,  and 
other  literary  exercises  will  follow,  interspersed  with  music. 

On  the  second  day,  Wednesday,  the  seventeenth  of  August,  the  memorial 
exercises  will  be  held  at  the  Atheneum  Hall,  on  which  occasion  Charles 
Carleton  Coffin,  of  Boston,  will  make  the  oration,  and  a  poem  by  Robert 
Barry  Coffin,  Esq.,  of  New  York,  will  be  read.  Other  speeches  will  be  in- 
troduced on  this  occasion,  as  may  be  hereafter  arranged.  These  exercises 
will  take  place  in  the  forenoon,  and  in  the  afternoon  a  pilgrimage  will  be 
made  to  the  old  homestead  place  of  Tristram  Coffin  near  Capaum  Pond, 
accompanied  with  the  Band  of  Music,  where  appropriate  commemorative 
exercises  will  be  held.  It  is  proposed  to  have  some  entertainment  in  the 
evening  at  the  Atheneum  Hall,  the  precise  character  of  which  has  not  been 
fully  decided  upon. 

The  last  day's  exercises  will  consist  of  a  Breakfast  or  Banquet  at  Surf- 
side,  at  which  Mr.  Copeland  will  make  his  best  endeavor  to  lay  tables  in 
the  highest  style  of  his  profession.  The  Committee  make  assurances  that 
this  affair  will  surpass  any  previous  effort  of  the  kind  ever  made  upon  the 
island.  The  dessert  will  be  served  in  plates  of  the  finest  French  china, 
decorated  with  the  Coffin  Coat  of  Arms,  and  the  coffee  and  tea  in  a  new 
style  cup  and  saucer  decorated  with  the  same  arms,  and  imported  expressly 
for  this  occasion  by  Charles  E.  Wiggin,  of  Boston.  Prof.  Selden  J.  Coffin, 
of  Lafayette  College,  Easton,  Pa.,  will  make  the  oration  after  this  repast,  and 
Dr.  Arthur  Elwell  Jenks,  of  Nantucket,  will  read  an  original  poem.  Other 
literary  and  musical  exercises  will  follow,  and  the  afternoon's  exercises  will 
conclude  with  an  anthem  written  for  the  occasion^  in  which  the  entire  family 
will  be  invited  to  join,  the  accompaniment  being  performed  by  the  Band. 

In  the  evening,  at  Surf-side,  a  Grand  Ball  will  impart  a  festive  conclud- 
ing feature  of  the  Reunion  exercises.  Smith's  Quadrille  Band  furnishing  the 
music.  This,  like  all  the  other  exercises,,  is  expected  to  be  the  most  re- 
therchi  affair  ever  indulged  in  upon  the  '-'ind. 


Messrs.  Editors — Rumors  of  the  Coffin  gathering  have  been  in  the 
air  even  here  for  some  time,  and  latelyv  the  Inquirer  and  Mirror,  with  the 


m 


74 


THE  LIFE  OF 


names  of  its  publishers,  fainilliar  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  has  come  to 
us,  bringing  a  more  definite  word.  Although  over  twenty  years  have 
passed  since  I  could  claim  to  be  a  citizen  of  your  island,  interest  in  Nan- 
tucket, especially  the  Nantucket  of  thirty  or  forty  years  ago,  has  suffered 
no  diminution.  Most  people  have  but  om  home,  and  let  them  go  where 
they  may,  in  the  fairest  of  lands  even,  in  their  hours  of  quiet  reflection, 
and  especially  when  the  shadows  of  their  life  begin  to  lengthen,  the  sun 
seems  to  shine  with  greater  brightness  on  the  spot  where  they  passed  their 
childhood.  So  it  is  with  our  home  on  the  "  Isle  of  the  Sea."  And  these 
rumors  of  the  Coffin  gathering  have  revived  the  old  associations,  and 
peopled  your  homes  and  streets  with  those  who  once  filled  them.  Every 
spot,  from  Siasconset  to  Maddaket,  and  down  to  the  South  Shore,  has  been 
gone  over,  and  anecdote,  tradition,  and  legend  have  come  up,  perhaps  to 
be  told  to  some  little  company  who  were  not  so  favored  sls  to  be  born  on 
the  island,  but  who  never  tire  of  hearing  about  it. 

By  the  way,  your  humble  correspondent  was  asked  a  year  of  two  ago  to 
contribute  one  of  a  course  of  lectures  given  here  for  some  local  charity. 
Having  often  spoken  to  the  larger  part  of  the  probable  audience,  and  be- 
ing  too  much  occupied  to  write  anything  new,  I  tried  to  beg  off.  «'  Can't 
you  just  talk  about  NanUcket,  as  you  have  done  in  company  ?  "  "Why, 
the  people  here  don't  care  about  that."  "But  you  mux/ do  something." 
"Well,  if  you  will  take  the  responsibility,  I  will  give  such  a  talk."  And 
so  I  did.  Just  brushed  up  my  history,  you  know,  especially  of  Revolu- 
tionary times,  telling  the  people  that  no  town  contributed  more,  negatively, 
by  its  losses  and  sufferings,  to  the  cause  of  National  freedom  than  Nan- 
tucket. Then  I  talked  about  the  whale-fishery  and  sea-life.  You  see  if  I 
made  mistakes  there,  or  embellishid  a  little  where  it  was  necesssary,  no 
one  of  my  audience  of  lands-people  knew  it.  Then  I  told  about  "  sheep- 
shearing,"  and  the  good  old  Society  of  Friends,  the  mother  church,  and  a 
good  one  as  we  could  find  before  the  seeds  of  strife  came  in  and  quenched 
the  simple  charities  of  the  beautiful  island  life.  Then  I  drew  portraits,  and 
told  anecdotes  of  the  notables,  Keziah  Coffin  and  her  country  house ; 
Cousin  Elizabeth  Black,  with  her  wondrous  speech  ;  Franklin  Folger,  and 
others,  ending  with  a  quotation  from  Whittier's  sweet  ballad,  "  The  Exiles," 
so  dear  to  a  Nantucketer.  The  audience  paid  the  tribute  (not  to  the 
speaker,  but  to  the  island  and  its  people)  of  profound  attention,  with  mingled 
seriousness  and  laughter,  for  an  hour,  and  the  expression  is  still  occasionally 
given  that  the  evening  on  Nantucket  was  one  of  most  enjoyable  interest. 

Thus  it  is  everywhere.  There  seems  to  have  been  something  in  the 
original  stock,  or  the  environments,  in  the  business,  the  social  and  religious 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


75 


atmosphere,  or  the  pure  sea  breezes  of  the  island,  which  made  it  a  place 
that  every  wanderer  soon  learns  to  be  proud  of ;  and  that  you  who  are  left 
to  sustain  the  honors  of  the  old  town  may  well  think  of  with  satisfaction. 
How  well  and  nobly  the  town's  decline  was  striven  against,  especially  after 
the  great  fire.  Is  it  not  recorded  in  some  book  of  light,  to  the  credit  of 
many,  both  of  those  who  have  passed  on  and  you  who  are  left  ?  And  it 
almost  seemed,  when  I  read  of  the  inauguration  of  the  railroad,  that  your 
crowning  had  come.  I  confess  to  a  latent  wish  not  to  have  the  old-time 
customs  too  much  lost  in  the  modernisms  of  a  fashionable  watering-place. 
We  can  get  these  somewhere  else ;  at  Nantucket  we  want  Nantucket.  To 
go  to  the  South  Shore  in  a  cart-bodied  wagon  somehow  seems  most  natu- 
ral. But  that  perhaps  is  sentiment  only,  and  people  can't  live  on  senti- 
ment ;  so  I  am  glad  to  learn  of  improvement,  and  hope  that  you  all  who 
have  nobly  striven  for  it  and  tried  to  keep  things  up  will  reap  a  reward. 
Whether  a  closely  occupied  life  will  allow  me  to  be  at  your  gathering  is 
yet  uncertain.  I  shall  try  for  it,  anyway.  I  wanted  to  make  sure,  through 
your  columns,  if  you  will  allow  it  to  an  old  friend  of  expressing  interest 
in  the  reunion  ;  and  will  you  pardon  a  suggestion,  which  may  be  superflu- 
fluous.  At  the  centennial  celebrations  at  Concord  and  Lexington,  I  no- 
ticed that  those  less  familiar  with  the  spots  of  interest  than  we  who  live 
near,  found  great  satisfaction  in  looking  at  the  placards  which  marked  his- 
toric places  and  houses.  To  the  Cofiin  family  especially  there  are  many 
such  places  at  Nantucket.  Mary  Starbuck,  the  "  great  woman,"  daughter 
of  Tristram  Cofiin,  and  wife  of  Nathaniel  Starbuck,  will  be  thought  of  with 
much  interest.  Where  her  house  stood  is  generally  known.  It  may  not 
be  so  well  known  that  the  house,  moved  down,  is  still  standing  and  retain- 
ing much  of  its  original  form.  The  house  of  William  Rotch,  Sr.,  is  also 
standing,  moved  up  from  lower  Main  street,  and  in  shape  is  unchanged. 
I  have  the  authority  of  Franklin  Folger  for  these  statements.  If  you  care 
to  identify  these  places,  and  some  others,  and  some  islander  cannot  readily 
do  it  for  you,  I  shall  be  happy  to  write  to  you  further.  Won't  you  want  to 
designate  the  spot  "  up  west,"  which  was  the  birthplace  of  Dr.  Franklin's 
mother  ;  and  the  first  Friends'  burying-ground,  where  Mary  Starbuck  was 
buried ;  and  the  house  in  town  where  I^ucretia  Moct  was  born,  and  lived 
until  she  was  twelve  years  old ;  and  the  site  of  Keziah  (Miriam)  CofUn's 
hoiiic,  where,  in  the  Revolution,  she  sold  smuggled  goods  to  the  distressed 
islanders  ;  and  the  site  of  the  old  Friends'  meeting-house,  corner  of  Main 
and  Pleasant  Streets — an  unsightly  structure,  guiltless  of  paint  or  architec- 
tural design,  but  to  many  of  us  a  sacred  spot  in  memory,  especially  at 
"  quarterly  meeting  time,"  when  the  immense  building  was  crowded  in 


<!'-    '.  . 


76 


THE  LIFE  OF 


u 


i » 


every  part  with  hushed  and  reverent  worshippers,  and  the  sweet  tones  of 
some  gifted  messenger  of  the  gospel  (perhaps  Elizabeth  Robinson,  from 
England)  breathed  around  the  old  oaken  braces  and  timbers,  holding  us 
children  in  reverent  awe  ?  Shall  we  ever  hear  the  like  again  ?  No  ;  btit 
something  else,  and  in  some  respects  something  better,  has  come  to  take 
its  place.  Won't  you  want  to  write  large  the  old  doggerel  we  used  to  re- 
peat, even  if  it  does  depreciate  the  Husseys,  one  line  of  which  is, 

"  The  Coffins,  noisy,  fractious,  loud," 

not  omitting  the  last  stanza,  of  which  I  only  heard  within  the  year,  that 

ends, 

••  The  Pinkhams  beat  the  devil" 

How  they  beat  him,  my  esteemed  friend  B.,  who  sent  me  the  stanza,  did 
not  inform  me.  And  so  we  might  go  on,  from  North  Shore  to  Newtown. 
If  I  can  do  anything  to  promote  the  interest  or  enjoyment  of  your  reunion 
it  will  give  me  great  pleasure. 

In  meeting  here  and  there  with  ex*  Nantucketers  who  are  interested  in 
the  island,  even  if  they  give  less  sign  of  interest  than  some  others,  it  has 
seemed  to  us  that  there  is  a  dearth  of  circulars  or  something  to  tell  us  what 
to  do.  If  it  be  not  much,  it  will  have  the  merit  of  a  hearty  regard  for  old 
and  new  Nantucket.  Do  save  us  a  copy  of  the  albertype  of  Tristram 
Coffin's  house,  at  Newbury.  A  friend  of  ours  this  way  has  a  friend  who 
has  been  in  the  house  in  old  England  from  which  the  Coffin's  came.  It  is 
now  about  eight  hundred  years  old,  and  is  still  occupied  and  well  preserved. 
This  lady,  who  is  herself  a  descendant  of  the  Coffins,  has  a  view  of  the 
house,  which  I  hope  to  see.  Can't  you  get  copies  for  your  gathering? 
Hoping  with  some  of  my  family  to  ride  over  the  railroad,  and  in  a  "  cart- 
bodied  wagon,"  too,  next  month,  and  to  take  the  hands  of  many  whom  I 
used  to  meet  in  other  days,  and  still  hold  in  much  esteem,  I  am 

Yours, 

■  C.  C.  HussEV. 

BiLLERiCA,  July  28,  1881. 

[We  are  pleased  to  hear  from  our  former  schoolfellow  of  over  half  a 
century  ago,  whom  we  had  supposed  had  long  since  been  gathered  to  his 
fathers.  Although  we  were  one  of  the  small  boys,  and  he  one  of  the  big 
ones  at  the  opening  of  the  Coffin  School  in  1837,  we  well  remember  him 
as  the  acknowled  leader  of  the  "  Chookies  "  in  our  snow-ball  battles  with 
the  "  Newtowners,"  which  were  carried  on  with  such  relentless  fury  in 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


11 


those  times.  We  would  inform  him  that  there  are  still  quite  a  number  of 
the  "Clio  boys"  living,  and  suppose  many  of  them  would  be  willing  to 
open  a  correspondence  with  him.  Benjamin  F.  Coffin  and  Franklin  FoU 
ger  still  reside  on  Nantucket ;  Robert  G.  Coffin  in  San  Francisco  ;  David 
P.  Eldridge  in  Milford,  Mass. ;  Fr^erick  A.  Hussey  in  Brookline,  Mass., 
and  Andrew  J.  Morton  in  Boston.  The  rest  of  the  boys  are  dead,  only 
two  of  whom  died  at  home,  one  from  sickness,  and  one — Edward  Worth — 
drowned  at  Brant  Point. — Eds.] 

When  the  time  arrived  for  the  celebration,  hundreds  of  the  descendants 
of  Tristram  flocked  to  Nantucket  from  all  over  the  continent.  They  were 
cordially  greeted  and  warmly  welcomed  by  their  kindred  belonging  to  the 
Island.  The  weather  did  not  prove  altogether  propitious.  The  winds  blew 
cold  and  the  rain  fell  in  torrents.  Occasional  intervals  of  sunshine  gave 
hope  of  permanent  clearing,  but  several  of  the  promised  repetitions  of  the 
festal  ways  of  the  earliest  times  were  given  up.  Enough,  however,  of  the 
pleasures  prepared  remained  practicable,  to  render  the  event  one  long  to  be 
remembered. 


78 


THE  LIFE  OF 


!l>;-i„ 


ill 

In 

t 

IE 

Bald 

xvm. 

WILLS. 
Will  of  Sir  Isaac  Coffin. 

{Extracted  from  the  Principal  Registry  of  the  Probate^  Divorce,  and  Ad' 
miralty  Division  of  the  High  Court  of  Justice,  in  the  Prerogative  Court 
of  Canterbury.) 

This  is  my  last  Will  and  Testament,  hereby  revoking  all  others  I  may 
have  heretofore  made.  Having  disposed  of  all  my  property  in  England 
that  I  had  in  the  funds  to  my  nearest  relations,  named  in  a  Deed  of  Trust, 
I  bequeath  the  Magdalen  Islands,  in  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  to  my 
nephew,  John  Town5end  Coffin,  during  the  term  of  his  natural  life,  then, 
at  his  de^tise,  to  his  son  Isaac  Tristram  Coffin,  and  his  issue  male.  Should 
the  said  Isaac  Tristram  Coffin  leave  no  issue  male,  then  to  his  brothers  in 
succession  and  their  male  heirs ;  failing  in  male  heirs  in  that  family  I  then 
leave  the  said  Magdalen  Islands  to  my  nephew  Henry  Edward  Coffin  and 
his  male  issue ;  he  failing  to  have  issue  male  I  then  bequeath  the  said  isU 
ands  to  the  sons  of  my  late  Cousin,  William  Coffin,  in  succession,  and 
their  male  heirs ;  failing  in  male  heirs  of  said  William  Coffin,  then  the  isU 
ands  to  become  the  property  of  the  sons  of  my  Cousin  Thomas  Coffin,  of 
Three  Rivers,  Lower  Canada,  in  succession ;  should  they  die  and  leave  no 
issue  male,  I  then  give  the  said  Magdalen  Islands  to  my  Godson  Isaac 
Campbell  Coffin,  now  an  officer  in  the  East  India  Company's  Service,  and 
his  sons  in  succession ;  failing  in  issue  male  from  the  said  Isaac  Coffin,  I 
give  the  said  Islands  to  his  brother  Sebright  Coffin  ;  should  all  these  above 
enumerated  Coffins  die  without  issue  male,  then  I  leave  the  said  Islands 
to  my  nephew,  Commander  William  Barwell  and  his  issue  male  ;  failing  to 
have  male  heirs,  I  then  leave  the  said  Magdalen  Islands  to  the  person  who 
may  prove  to  be  my  Heir-at-Law.  As  the  Islands  were  granted  to  me  for 
my  services  during  the  American  War,  17 75-1 783,  and  in  Canada  during 
Lord  Dorchester's  time,  I  request  they  may  remain  as  an  Heir-Loom  in 
the  family,  and  that  whoever  succeeds  to  them  may  assume  and  bear  the 
Arms  of  Coffin.    My  property  at  Boston,  N.  America,  under  the  care  of 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


79 


William  Foster  Otis,  Esq.,  amounting  by  the  last  account  to  Eleven  thou- 
sand five  hundred  pounds,  I  desire  may  be  left  under  his  control  until  it 
amounts  to  Twenty  Thousand  pounds,  then  the  interest  to  be  paid  to  John 
Townsend  Coffin  and  the  principal  to  Isaac  Tristram  Coffin,  he  having  no 
children,  then  to  his  brothers  in  succession,  on  the  demise  of  the  Father 
John  Townsend  Coffin  ;  failing  in  male  issue,  the  Family  of  the  said  John 
Townsend  Coffin.  Then  the  Twenty  thousand  pounds  to  be  divided 
among  any  female  children  the  said  John  Townsend  Coffin  may  leave.  I 
name  Charles  Earle,  Esq.,  William  Earle,  Esq.,  Hardman  Earle,  Esq., 
Richard  Earle,  Esq.,  Barrister,  and  William  Foster  Olis,  Esq.,  of  the  City 
of  Boston,  N.  America,  as  my  Trustees  and  Executors,  requesting  as  an 
old  friend  of  their  families  they  will  forgive  the  trouble  I  give  them. 

Isaac  Coffin,  Admiral,  [us.] 

Signed,  sealed,  and  delivered  in  the  presence 
of  us,  the  15th  day  of  March,  1839. 

Jno.  S.  Carden,  Real  Adm'l,  Cheltenham. 
S.  Martin  Colquitt,  R.  N.,  Do.  Cheltenham. 

This  is  a  Codicil  to  my  Will.  Unable  to  make  a  distribution  of  my  prop- 
erty among  my  relations,  from  the  difficulty  attending  my  obtaining  a  re- 
lease from  the  Trustees  of  the  late  Lady  Coffin,  I  hereby  leave  to  my 
Trustees,  named  in  my  Will,  with  all  my  funded  property  in  the  Three  pr. 
Cent  Consols  and  reduced  annuities,  the  interest,  amounting  to  Seven  hun- 
dred and  thirty-eight  pounds,  to  be  paid  to  my  nephew,  John  Townsend 
Coffin,  at  his  death,  the  said  interest  to  be  paid  to  Isaac  Tristram  Coffin 
and  his  heirs  lawfully  begotten. 
Isaac  Coffin,  Admiral. 

:  L.S. 


Signed,  sealed,  and  delivered  in  the  presence 
of  us,  the  subscribing  trustees. 

Thomas  Roe,  Major  H.  E.  I.  C».  S., 
George  Dixon,  Vicar  of  Helmsley,  Yorkshire. 

Appeared  personally,  Samuel  Martin  Colquitt,  of  the  Parish  of  Chel- 
tenham, in  the  County  of  Gloucester,  Esquire,  made  oath  that  he  is  one 
of  the  subscribed  witnesses  to  the  last  Will  and  Testament  of  Sir  Isaac 
Coffin,  late  of  Cheltenham,  in  the  County  of  Gloucester,  Baronet,  de- 
ceased, who  died  on  the  twenty-third  day  of  July  last,  the  said  will  bear- 
ing date  the  fifteenth  day  of  March,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirty 
nine.    And  he  further  made  oath  that  he  was  present  at  the  execution  of 


■ 


■)' 


8o 


THE  LIFE  or 


the  said  Will  by  the  said  deceased,  and  that  the  said  Will  was  signed  at 
the  foot  or  the  end  thereof  in  manner,  as  now  appears  by  the  said  Testator, 
in  the  presence  of  this  deponent  and  of  John  Surrani  Garden,  the  other 
witness  thereto  subscribed,  present  at  the  same  time,  who  set  and  sub- 
scribed their  names  as  witnesses  to  the  said  will  in  the  presence  of  the  said 
Testator.  S.  Martin  Colquitt,  R.N. 

On  the  24th  day  of  December,  1839,  the  said  Samuel  Martin  Colquitt, 
Esquire,  was  duly  sworn  to  the  truth  of  the  above  Affidavit  before  me, 

Francis  Close, 
Perpetual  Curate  of  Cheltenham,  Commissioner. 


Appeared  personally  Thomas  Roe,  of  Cheltenham,  in  the  County 
of  Gloucester,  Esquire,  and  made  oath  that  he  is  one  of  the  subscribed 
witnesses  to  the  Codicil  to  the  last  will  and  Testament  of  Sir  Isaac 
Coffin,  late  of  Cheltenham,  in  the  County  of  Gloucester,  Baronet,  de- 
ceased, who  died  on  the  twenty-third  day  of  July  last,  the  said  Will  bear- 
ing date  the  Fifteenth  day  of  March,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirty 
nine,  and  the  said  Codicil  being  without  date.  And  he  further  made  oath 
that  he  was  present  at  the  execution  of  the  said  Codicil  by  the  said  de< 
ceased,  on  or  about  the  Fifteenth  or  Twentieth  day  of  May  last,  and  he 
further  made  oath  that  the  said  Codicil  was  signed  at  the  end  or  foot 
thereof  in  manner  as  now  appears  by  the  said  Testator  in  the  presence  of 
this  deponent  and  of  the  Reverend  George  Dixon,  Clerk,  the  other  sub- 
scribed witness  thereto,  both  present  at  the  same  time,  who  set  and  sub- 
scribed their  names  as  witnesses  to  the  said  Codicil  in  the  presence  of  the 
said  Testator.  Thomas  Roe. 

On  the  thirteenth  day  of  January,  1840,  the  said  Thomas  Roe,  Esq., 
was  duly  sworn  to  the  truth  of  the  aforesaid  Affidavit  before  me, 

Francis  Close, 
Perpetual  Curate  of  Cheltenham,  Gloucestershire,  Commrs. 

Proved  at  London  (with  a  Codicil),  15  January,  1840,  before  the  Judge 
by  the  oath  of  William  Earle,  Esq.,  one  of  the  Executors  to  whom  admon 
was  granted,  having  been  first  sworn  by  Commissioner,  duly  to  administer. 
Power  reserved  of  making  the  like  grant  to  Charles  Earle,  Hardman 
Earle,  and  Richard  Earle,  Esquires,  and  William  Foster  Otis,  the  other 
Executors  when  they  shall  apply  for  the  same.     Effects  under  ^s5iOoa 


"^^ 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


8l 


The  descendants  of  William  Gayer  and  of  his  admirable  daughters,  Da- 
maris  and  Dorcas,  are  so  many  and  so  estimable  that  in  the  faith  that  they 
may  be  pleased  to  possess  the  wills  of  William  and  his  brother  Sir  John, 
they  are  printed  here  from  the  "New  England  Gen.  Register,  vol. xxxi.,  p. 
297.  Mr.  Folger  furnished  full  copies  of  these  Wills,  to  be  preserved  in 
the  archives  of  the  N.  E.  Historic  Genealogical  Society. 


Will  of  William  Gayer,  Sr.,  Esq. 

/,  William  Gayer,  of  the  Island  of  Nantucket,  being  sick  but  of  sound 
mind  and  memory,  make  this  my  last  will.  Unto  my  son  William  Gayer, 
one  Share  of  land  on  the  Island  of  Nantucket,  with  all  the  privileges 
belonging  (if  my  said  son  shall  ever  come  hither  again).  To  my  dau. 
Damaris  Coffin,  one  eighth  part  of  a  share  of  land  on  the  Island  of  Nan- 
tucket, of  that  land  I  had  of  my  Father-in-law,  Edward  Starbuck.  I 
give  my  daughter,  Dorcas  Starbuck,  one  Eighth  part  of  a  Share  of  [said] 
land.  My  part  of  the  Island  of  Muskeget  to  my  two  daughters,  Damaris 
Coffin  and  Dorcas  Starbuck,  Equally  to  be  divided  between  them.  To 
my  house-keeper.  Patience  Foot,  one  Cow  and  forty  Sheep  with  Common- 
age for  them  as  also  half  of  the  barn  and  try  house,  with  half  the  garden, 
half  the  land  and  fence,  about  my  dwelling  house,  half  the  lot  and  fence 
towards  Monomoy,  the  horse  pasture  Exepted,  as  also  the  West  Chamber 
and  Garret,  and  half  the  lean  to  of  my  now  dwelling  house.  I  give  to 
Africa,  a  negro,  once  my  servant,  twenty  Sheep  and  Commonage  for  them 
and  for  one  horse,  as  also  the  East  Chamber  of  my  now  dwelling  house, 
and  half  the  leanto,  and  the  other  half  of  my  barn  and  try  house  with  the 
half  of  all  the  lands  and  fence  about  my  house,  and  the  half  of  the  lot  to- 
wards Monomoy.  I  will  that  my  dau.,  Damaris  Coffin,  have  the  use  of 
the  rest  of  my  Dwelling  house,  if  she  should  come  hither  to  live.  My 
two  Daughters,  Damaris  Coffin  and  Dorcas  Starbuck,  Joynt  Executrices 

of  this  my  last  will  and  testament. 

William  Gayer. 
Sept.  21,  1710. 

In  presence  of 

Richard  Gardner,   Eleazer    Folger,  Junr.,   Eunice   Gardner, 
Jabez  Bunker,  Judith  Gardner.  , 


Probated  24  day  Oct.  17 10. 
Eleazer  Folger,  Regr. 


James  Coffin, 

Judge  of  Probate. 


r^'^iHi 


81 


THE  LIFE  OF 


Sir  John  Gayer's  Will. 


I  John  Gayer,  of  Bombay,  Knight,  in  perfect  health  do  make  this  my 
last  Will  and  Testament.  My  Body  to  be  Interred  at  the  Discretion  of 
my  hereafter  named  Executrix,  and  if  I  die  in  India,  in  the  tomb  of  my 
former  Wife.  Debts  discharged  I  give  as  followeth  :  Unto  my  Brother 
William  Gayer,  of  the  Island  of  Nantucket,  One  Hundred  Pounds  Ster- 
ling. Unto  his  son,  William  Gayer,  my  nephew,  now  in  the  East  Indies, 
Eight  Thousand  Pounds  Sterling.  Unto  the  children  of  Eldest  Sister  Jane 
Lee,  Five  Hundreds  Pound  Sterling,  to  be  Equally  devided  amongst 
them,  and  in  case  of  any  of  their  Mortality,  before  Marriage,  their  part  to 
the  Survivor.  Unto  the  children  of  my  Sister,  Joan  Hooper,  Seven  Hun- 
dred Pounds  Sterling,  to  be  Equally  Divided  amongst  them,  and  in  Case  of 
Either  of  their  Mortality  before  Marriage  their  part  to  the  Survivor.  Un- 
to the  children  of  my  Sister,  Elizabeth  Matthews,  Two  Hundred  Pounds 
Sterling,  to  be  Equally  Devided  amongst  them,  etc.  Unto  my  Niece 
Elizabeth  Gayer,  Two  Thousand  Pounds  Sterling  to  be  kept  in  the  hands 
of  my  Execturix  and  Improved  by  her  for  her  maintenance  while  she  lives 
a  single  life ;  but  if  she  Marry,  at  the  Day  of  her  Marriage,  the  Principal 
and  what  is  gained  thereby,  except  so  much  as  Defrays  the  Charge  of  her 
'  Maintenance  before,  is  all  to  be  paid  her,  but  in  Case  of  her  Decease  be- 
fore Marriage,  then  that  sum  of  Two  Thousand  Pounds,  with  what  is 
Gained  thereby  I  give  to  my  Above  Mentioned  Nephew,  William  Gayer,  to 
be  forthwith  paid  him,  besides  the  sum  of  Eight  Thousand  Pounds  before 
Mentioned.  Unto  the  children  of  Robert  Harper,  my  Deceased  wife's 
Brother,  Three  Hundred  Pounds  Sterling,  to  be  Equally  devided  amongst 
them  etc.  Unto  Joseph  Harper,  my  Deceased  wife's  Brother,  if  he  be 
alive  at  the  time  of  my  Decease,  One  Hundred  Pounds  Sterling.  Unto 
the  children  of  my  Cousin,  Mercy  Throgmorton,  Four  Hundred  Pounds 
Sterling  etc.  Unto  the  children  of  my  Cousin  John  Rither,  deceased. 
Two  Thousand  Pounds  Sterling  etc.  Unto  my  cousin,  James  Car, 
Two  Hundred  Pounds  Sterling,  ia  case  he  survives  me.  Unto  my 
Cousin,  Elizabeth  Thrip,  Ten  Pounds  Sterling.  Unto  the  children  of 
Sister-in-Law,  Judith  Battin,  Two  Hundred  Pounds  Sterling,  to  be  Equally 
devided  Amongst  them  etc.  Unto  my  Cous'- 1,  Lucy  hole,  fifty  Pounds 
Sterling.  Unto  my  Cousin,  Rachel  Dale,  if  she  be  alive  at  the  time  of  my 
Decease,  Ten  Pounds  Sterling.  Unto  my  loving  Friend,  Mr.  Thomas 
Wooley,  Secretary  of  the  East  India  Company,  Fifty  Pounds  Sterling. 
Unto  my  loving  Friend,  Mr.  Barnard  Wiche,  of  Surrat,  Fifty  Pounds  Ster- 


1'-^.  I 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,   BART. 


83 


ling.  Unto  Mr.  Robert  Luynfer,  of  Surrat,  Fifty  Pounds  Sterling,  if  he  be 
alive  at  the  time  of  my  Decease.  I  Dedicate  and  Devote  to  God,  for  the 
Service  of  his  Church,  Five  Thousand  Pounds  Sterling,  to  be  disposed  of 
by  the  persons  hereafter  mentioned,  to  yonng  Students  for  the  Ministry 
and  to  such  as  are  Newly  Entered  into  the  Sacred  Office,  to  furnish  them 
with  What  [may  be]  Needful  to  make  them  most  useful  in  the  discharge 
of  that  great  trust  for  which  they  are  devoted  to  God  j  and  it's  my  Earnest 
desire  that  those  persons  amongst  whom  this  sum  shall  be  distributed, 
may  be  men  of  Sober,  Moderate  principles,  not  inclined  to  Domination, 
nor  to  unnecessary  Seperation,  and  to  Express  my  mind  more  fully,  I 
say  unto  men  of  such  Principles  as  the  late  Reverend  and  truly  Worthy 
Mr.  Richard  Baxter  was,  in  whom  the  Primitive  Spirit  of  holiness.  Love, 
and  Moderation  did  brightly  shine,  from  whose  works  I  give  God  thanks 
I  have  received  great  benefit.  Now,  the  persons  I  most  earnestly  request 
in  Conjunction  with  my  wife  and  Nephew  William  Gayer  to  undertake  the 
Distributing  of  I  have  so  solemnly  devoted,  are  the  Right  WorshipfuU 
Henry  Ashurst,  Bant,  and  Mr.  Thomas  Wooley,  before  mentioned.  I  do 
further  request  that  they  will  all  be  assisting  to  my  Beloved  Wif?  in  the 
whole  management  of  her  affairs. 

If  my  Estate  amounts  to  less  than  what  is  in  my  present  books,  Ending 
the  last  of  July,  1710,  when  it  arrives  in  England,  amounting  what  is  in 
Rupees  at  two  shillings  and  six  pence  to  a  Rupee,  then  I  order  that  Every 
Legacy  herein  mentioned  shall  be  so  much  less  in  proportion  as  the  whole 
of  my  Estate  at  the  time  of  all  its  arrival  in  England  falls  Short  of  what  it 
is  in  Said  books.  The  rest  of  my  Estate,  whether  Money,  Plate,  Gold  or 
Silver,  Jewels,  Goods,  Household  Furniture,  wearing  Apparel,  Books, 
Debts,  Lands,  and  whatsoever,  both  Real  and  Personal,  I  shall  be  pos- 
sessed of  at  my  decease,  I  give  unto  my  wife,  Dame  Mary  Gayer,  whom  I 
make  Sole  Executrix  of  this,  my  last  will  and  Testament.  In  witness 
Whereof  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  Seal  in  Bombay  Castle,  5th  of 
October,  1710.  John  Gayer. 

In  presence  of  us,  where  no  stampt  paper  is  procurable,  &c.,  &c.,  &c., 

WiLUAM   AlSLABIE,  WiLLIAM    BaRNES,  ABRAHAM    BaRNOT,    RtCHARO 

WiLMER,  John  Hill. 


A  true  copy  from  the  original. 

Witnesses,   John    Eaton  Dodsworth,  James  Osborne,    William 
Gayer,  Richard  Bull. 


84 


THE  LIFE  OF 


Will  of  William  Gayer,  Junr, 

9*  Nov.,  1712. 
/,  William  Gayer,  Gentleman  of  y*  Parish  of  Beckenham  in  Kent,  be- 
ing sick,  but  of  sound  and  disposing  mind  and  memory,  do  make  my  last 
will.  Payment  of  all  debts.  To  my  elder  sister,  Damaris  Coffin,  one- 
half  part.  To  my  younger  sister,  Dorcas  Starbuck,  y*  other  half  of  what 
belongs  to  me  in  New  England.  To  my  two  sisters  aforesaid,  two  thou- 
sand pounds  sterling,  that  is,  to  each  one  thousand  pounds.  To  my 
aunt,  Jane  Lee,  of  Plymouth,  Aunt  Elizabeth  Matthews,  Mr.  Epiphamius 
Holland  [each]  ^100.  To  Mr.  George  Musole,  ^25.  To  Mrs.  Martha 
Deacon,  Mrs.  Abigail  Fitch  [each]  jQioo.  Remainder  of  my  estate  to 
my  wife,  Elizabeth  Gayer,  whom  I  [appoint  sole  Executrix  of  this  my  last 
Will,  William  Gayer. 


In  y"  presence  of 

Susanna  Holland,  William  Norman,  Andrew  Stoddart. 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


85 


XIX. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


William  Gaye:<i,  Esq.,  came  to  this  country  from  Devonshire,  Eng- 
land.* He  married  Dorcas  Starbuck,  daughter  of  Elder  Edwrard  Starbuck, 
by  his  wife,  Katherine  Reynolds,  of  Wales.  He  was  an  early  settler  of 
Nantucket ;  probably  nad  been  a  ship-carpenter ;  was  a  farmer  and  a  Jus- 
tice of  the  Peace.  I  find  by  the  records  in  the  office  of  our  Secretary  of 
State,  that  Captain  John  Gardner  and  Mr.  William  Gayer  were  representa- 
tives to  the  General  Court  from  Nantucket  on  the  8th  of  June,  1692,  being 
the  first  representatives  from  that  island  after  its  transfer  from  the  Colony 
of  New  York  to  the  Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  William  Gayer, 
Esq.,  was  one  of  five  judges  appointed  by  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts, 
in  1 704,  to  try  an  Indian  of  Nantucket,  named  Sabo,  for  the  crime  of 
murder. 

He  lived  in  a  double  house,  one  and  a  half  stories  in  height,  on  Church 
Street,  in  Nantucket,  occupied  long  since  my  first  remembrance  by  descend- 
ants of  his  daughter,  Damaris  Coffin.  This  house  for  a  long  time  was  con- 
sidered the  oldest  on  the  island,  and  I  think  was  built  in  1682,  of  solid  oak 
timber,  the  growth  of  the  island,  and  strengthened  with  oak  knees,  like  a 
ship,  and  very  firmly.  It  passed  into  the  hands  of  strangers  about  1839  o' 
1840,  and  was  taken  down  to  give  place  to  a  modern  dwelling-house.  A 
bureau  with  a  sort  of  book-case  or  cupboard  on  top — which  was  made  in 
Oliver  Cromwell's  time,  and  brought  over  by  William  Gayer,  probably  in 
Charles  the  Second's  reign,  belonged  to  my  grandmother,  a  great-grand- 
daughter of  William  Gayer,  Esq.  It  was  made  in  part  of  English  oak,  col- 
ored a  dark  red,  and  ornamented  with  turned  pieces  of  maple,  painted 
black  and  nailed  on  ;  and  the  top  part,  or  cupboard,  was  in  part  supported 
by  two  maple  urns,  or  short  pillars,  painted  black.  It  was  altogether  an 
unique  but  useful  piece  of  furniture.  After  the  death  of  both  of  my  grand- 
parents, it  was  placed  in  the  cabinet  of  curiosities  of  the  Nantucket  Athe- 
neum,  but  was  burned  up  in  the  great  fire  of  1846,  when  that  building,  with 


II 


*  N.  E.  Gen.  and  Hisb  Register,  voL  xszi.,  page  397. 


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96 


THE  LIFE  OF 


h* 
i^ 


its  fine  collections  of  books,  South  Sea  shells,  war  weapons,  etc.,  was  de- 
stroyed. 

The  following  letter  is  from  Jane  Gayer,  mother  of  William  Gayer,  Sr., 
from  Plymouth,  England,  to  her  son,  William  Gayer,  at  Nantucket : 

"  Son,  my  dearest  love  to  you  and  your  wife,  and  to  my  grandchildren, 
hoping  that  these  few  lines  will  find  you  in  good  health,  as  through  mercy  I 
enjoy  at  this  present  writing.  I  have  sent  you  two  letters  by  Mr.  Blag,  of 
New  York,  and  I  liave  sent  several  letters  by  other  means,  but  I  never  re- 
ceived none  from  you  since  the  i"  of  October,  1692,  bearing  this  date. 
Dear  son,  I  should  request  you  that  I  might  hear  from  you.  Your  brother 
Sir  John  sailed  from  the  downs  the  last  of  May,  was  a  12  month  gone,  and 
all  his  family  with  him.  A  month  after  he  went  away  he  put  in  for  the 
Madeira.  I  received  a  letter  from  him  out  of  the  Madeira's,  since  I  have 
not  heard  from  him,  for  there  has  not  a  ship  come  home  from  that  place 
since.  I  did  not  know  whether  there  was  a  New  England  man  here  or  no 
before  your  uncle's  land  come  to  me  to  know  how  to  direct  a  letter  .to  you 
and  that  is  concerning  Cousin  Jane  Bray's  business.  I  shall  be  like  a  fool  to 
double  my  request  to  you  that  I  might  hear  from  you,  and  that  I  might 
know  how  to  direct  my  letters  to  you,  for  I  do  fear  that  they  do  not  come 
to  your  hand.  Your  brother  Hooper  and  his  wife,  and  your  sister  Marcy, 
desired  to  be  remembered  to  you  and  yours.  Your  uncles  and  aunt 
doth  the  same ;  my  kind  respects  to  Cousin  Jane  Bray  and  her  family ;  not 
else  at  present  but  my  prayers  constantly  to  the  Lord  for  you,  &  remain 
your  loving  mother,  Jane  Gayer. 

From  Plymouth,  this  11  June,  1694. 

These  for  Mr.  William  Gayer. 

Living  on  the  Island  of  Nantucket,  New  England. 

Note. — I  heard  during  the  present  month,  February,  1877,  from  a 
lady,  a  descendant  of  William  Gayer,  Esq.,  that  when  her  mother  was 
very  young,  some  seventy  years  ago  probably,  news  came  to  Nantucket 
that  a  very  large  property  in  England  had  been  left  for  descendants  of  the 
Gayer  family.  Thomas  Starbuck  of  Nantucket  was  desirous  his  son  Jo- 
seph, a  very  smart  business  man,  should  go  to  England  to  investigate  the 
matter ;  but  he  felt  he  could  not  spare  the  time  it  would  require,  so  he, 
with  his  older  brothers,  Simeon  and  Levi,  sent  over  an  agent  to  Great  Brit- 
ain, who  returned  and  reported  he  had  not  carried  out  sufhcient  documents 
and  there  the  case  ended,  as  f  ;;  as  Nantucket  interest  was  concerned. 

William  C.  Folger.    ' 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


87 


[William  Gayer,  Sen.,  to  his  daughter  Damaris  Coffin,  wife  of  Capt. 

Nathaniel  Coffin.) 

Daughter  Damaris, 

These  may  serve  to  inform  you  we  are  all  well.  When  I  wrote  you  your 
mother  Coffin  was  designed  to  Boston  by  Land.  I  find  I  was  mistaken. 
She  tells  me  since  her  intent  was  only  to  the  main.  Christian  is  now  at 
her  grand  ffather  Coffins.  Mr.  Folger  came  home  from  Boston  yesterday 
and  informs  me  that  John  Sowters  brother  came  from  England  lately,  and 
says  he  spoke  with  your  brother  William  G.  in  the  East  Indies  Eighteen 
months  since.  If  you  have  a  convenient  opportunity  I  wish  you  would 
speak  with  him  and  inquire  what  you  can  about  William.  I  hope  you  will 
let  me  hear  from  you  as  often  as  you  have  opportunity  for  I  take  great 
Delight  to  hear  of  your  welfare  so  with  my  love  to  yourself  and  Children 
with  all  other  friends  I  remain  your  father 

William  Gayer  nantucket  Septr :  9  :  1 709. 
Mr  Nathaniel  Coffin    [  in  |   Charls  Towne. 

In  a  letter  from  Thomas  and  James  Hooper  to  William  Gayer,  Nan- 
tucket, dated  "  Stone  house,  near  Plymouth,  the  15th  of  February,  1699-70," 
they  say,  "  Mother  desires  to  be  remembered  unto  all."  His  wife  had  been 
sick  about  six  months.  They  had  heard  by  his  son  William  from  their  brother 
William,  of  Nantucket,  nothing  else  important. 


{Mrs.  Damaris  Coffin,  wife  of  Captain  Nathaniel  Coffin  and  daughter  of 
William  Gayer,  Esq.,  of  Nantucket,  to  her  uncle,  Sir  John  Gayer,  then 
in  the  East  Indies.) 

Boston,  N.  E.  loth  Jan  y"  1711-12. 
Most  Hon"  Unclb 

Inclosed  is  a  copy  of  what  my  husband  wrote  you  in  his  last,  advising 
you  of  the  death  of  my  Hon''  father  y""  brother  William  Gayer  &  of  the  Dis- 
position we  had  made  of  our  son  William  &c  to  which  refer  you. 

I  have  now  before  me  the  Hon'  of  your  kind  letter  of  the  5*  Jan'ry 
1709-10.    Directed  to  my  deceased  father. 

The  Good  Character  and  Hopeful  State  of  my  brother  with  you  is  very 
reviving  and  the  more  Comfortable  seeing  you  Express  an  Inclination  to 
tend  him  for  Brittain,  and  in  hopes  you  will  soon  follow  him  yourself.    For 


88 


THE  LIPE  OF 


j 

i     . 
i 
1 

liii 

i'- 

'IfflHi 

W'- 

which  Blessing  I  daily  Elevate  my  Prayers  to  my  God,  That  he  would 
Bless  prosper  and  protect  you  both  and  send  you  to  the  height  of  your 
desires  therein  in  health  and  safety. 

My  son  goes  on  hopefully  with  his  book.  I  am  in  hopes  that  God  will 
bless  you  and  send  you  Safe  to  yo'  native  Country,  and  will  prepare  my 
boy  to  wait  oi.  you  to  your  content  and  Satisfaction,  whenever  you  please 
to  put  your  Commands  on  him  So  to  do.  My  Good  Husband  hath  met 
with  hard  Fortune  in  his  last  voyage  from  Lisboa  being  taken  and  Carried 
into  France,  where  he  hath  been  a  Prisoner  a  long  time  and  was  not  re- 
leased in  last  but  was  in  hopes  to  procure  his  Liberty  in  a  short  time 
and  go  for  London  from  whence  probably  you  may  hear  from  him.  He  has 
been  from  home  now  for  months  and  when  he  will  be  set  free  which  is  un- 
certain. God  direct  him  and  us  for  the  best.  I  must  conclude  with  my 
Duty  to  you  &  my  true  respects  to  my  brother  if  with  you  &  am  most  sin- 
cerely Hon**  Uncle 

Your  most  afTec  " 

Niece. 


{Sir  Isaac  Coffin  to  Jona  Amory  of  Boston^ 

Charleston    12th  May,  1817. 
My  Dear  Cousin: 

Letters  from  England,  received  yesterday,  oblige  me  to  leave  this  coun- 
try much  sooner  than  was  expected,  for  I  fully  intended  at  least  to  pass 
a  week  with  you,  prior  to  my  departure.  Inclose  to  you  the  Secret  of 
the  accumulation  in  the  American  Funds  and  beg  your  kind  attention  as 
far  as  is  convenient  to  my  Magdalen  Island  concerns. 

The  inclosed  for  Messrs.  T.  Belcher  and  Wright  will  explain  to  you 
what  my  intentions  are,  and  the  remittances  you  may  expect  from  that 
Quarter. 

It  will  be  necessary  you  should  by  some  careful  person  remit  the  cer- 
tificates of  the  stocks  to  me  under  cover  to  Messrs.  Thos.  Wm.  Earles 
Co.,  Liverpool,  taking  the  proper  precaution  by  notarial  copies  or  other- 
wise as  you  may  judge  best,  and  you  may  continue  to  draw  on  Messr.  Thos. 
Coutts  &  Co.,  Strand,  London,  until  the  interest  in  the  7  and  6  yrs.  Cents, 
amounts  to  three  hundred  sterling,  adding  to  it  any  remittance  you  may 
receive  from  Messrs.  Belcher  and  Wright,  and  the  interests  of  the  Stock 
already  invested  as  it  becomes  payable,  until  further  order. 

The  loth  of  January  and  loth  of  July,  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
pounds,  are  at  each  period,  paid  into  my  bankers'  hands.    The  loth  of 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


89 


April  and  loth  of  October,  two  hundred  and  fourteen  pounds  are  received 
by  them.  Manage  the  time  of  drawing  for  these  sums  periodically,  and  that 
the  bills  may  be  presented  with  regularity.  The  half  pay  in  advance  quar- 
terly, may  be  drawn  by  you,  as  it  becomes  due. 

Bill  the  ist  of  July,  ^167  ;  October  ist,  ^^167  ;  ist  January)  ^167  ; 
ist  April,  ^^167.  I  will  on  my  arrival  in  England,  immediately  prepare  my 
banker  for  this  arrangement ;  and  now  for  the  Secret,  it  is  for  a  Charitable 
Institution,  so  as  you  are  known  to  be  one  of  the  best  of  men,  help  me  as 
well  as  you  can.  Thanks  for  your  offer  of  credit,  I  shall  have  no  occasion 
at  present  for  it. 

Most  truly  do  I  lament  this  unforseen  event  has  deprived  me  of  the 
pleasure  of  seeing  you,  your  family,  and  my  friends. 

Remember  me  kindly  to  them  all,  my  aunt  and  Dr.  Dexter. 

By  some  kind  master  forward  my  baggage  to  Liverpool,  that  is  in  your 
custody  and  believe  me 

Ever  Affectionately  yours,        Isaac  Coffin. 


{To  Commodom  Jfultj. 

London,  5  May,  1819. 
My  Dear  Sir  : 

Long,  very  long,  have  I  been  expecting  the  huge  Lobster  you  were  so 
kind  as  to  promise  me.  "  Better  late  than  never."  I  send  you  a  simple 
contrivance  for  to    examine  the  when  you  have  as 

many  line  of  Battle  Ships  as  we  have  its  application  may  be  useful. 

A  Petition  against  my  return  to  Parliament  was  presented  to  the  House, 
and,  in  the  event  of  my  being  thrown  out,  it  was  my  intention  to  take  a 
trip  again  across  the  Ocean  and  visit  my  friends  at  Boston ;  but,  by  a 
Resolution  of  the  Committee,  I  am  reseated,  my  Opponent  having 

I  must,  therefore,  now  defer  my  voyage  to  some  more  favorable  op- 
portunity.    In  any  way  that  I  can  be  useful  to  you  here,  I  pray  command 
me.    Offer  my  best  wishes  to  your  spouse  and  all  friends. 
Believing  me  very  truly  yours, 

Isaac  Coffin. 

P.  S.  When  you  have  the  goodness  to  write  me,  send  the  letter  via 
Liverpool,  the  lobster  to  the  care  of  Col.  Aspinwall.  Address  to  the  care 
of  Messrs.  Tho.  and  Wm.  Early  &  Co.,  Liverpool. 

Admiral  Coffin. 


w^ 


90 


THE  LIFE  OF 


London,  3rd  June,  18 18. 
My  Dear  Sir  : 

In  looking  over  some  old  charts,  I  found  one  of  Boston  Harbour  which, 
though  of  an  ancient  daie,  may  still  be  correct.  It  shows  the  state  of  the 
Town,  when  the  troops  of  Great  Britain  were  shut  up  in  it,  and  most  of 
the  surrounding  Forts,  Dorchester  excepted. 

I  beg  your  acceptance  of  it,  and  when  placed  in  your  office  it  will 
serve  to  remind  you  of  one  who  holds  you  in  high  estimation. 

Offer  to  your  spouse  and  her  lovely  sister  ray  best  wishes,  and  believe 
me  always,  yours  very  truly, 

Isaac  Coffin. 

Capt.  Hull. 


London,  16th  April,  18 19. 
My  Dear  Sir  : 

My  reputation  will  sink  to  the  lowest  ebb,  unless  your  efforts  are 
crowned  with  success  relating  to  the  Lobster.  Should  you  fail  to  cross  the 
Ocean  again,  I  long  to  try  my  luck  by  travelling  in  the  Bay  between  Cape 
Cod  and  Cape  Ann.  I  lament  the  situation  I  hold  prevents  nie  paying 
you  a  visit  this  Spring,  as  my  Spirits  were  never  better,  and  the  Goui  not 
within  hail. 

Remember  me  kindly  to  your  spouse  and  all  my  relations. 

Truly  yours, 

Isaac  Coffin. 
Captain  Hull,  Boston. 


.  London,  May  20th,  18 19. 

My  Dear  Sir  : 

Allow  me  to  offer  for  your  acceptance  the  Telegraph. 

With  my  new  occupation  little  time  is  left  me  to  look  into  a  Signal 
Book.  Besides,  there  is  little  chance  of  ever  being  employed  again,  and 
certainly  none  in  fighting  against  that  country  that  gave  me  birth.  If  at 
your  leisure  moments  you  can  pick  out  anything  that  may  be  useful  or 
ornamental,  I  shall  be  gratified. 

Should  one  of  those  huge  lobsters  be  forthcoming,  remember  that  you 
do  not  forget  me.     In  looking  over  some  papers  the  other  day,  I  found 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COrFIN,  BART. 


91 


some  charts  of  old  Massachusetts,  which  may  one  of  these  days  find  their 

way  to  you. 

Kind  remembrances  to  all  friends. 

Always  Yours  Truly, 

Isaac  Coffin. 
Captain  I.  Hull. 


MWlW. 


London,  13th  July,  18 19. 
My  Dear  Sir  : 

The  lobster  you  committed  to  the  care  of  Captain  Tracy  arrived  in 
good  condition.  It  is  considered  a  marvellous  one  here.  Still,  my  friend. 
Sir  Joseph  Banks,  longs  for  one  of  ninety  pounds,  which  your  letter  speaks 
of,  so  that  you  must  be  on  the  lookout  still  for  me ;  and  should  you  be 
successful  in  procuring  another  of  uncommon  size,  you  must  have  the 
goodness  to  forward  it,  taking  care  first  to  boil  it  in  strong  pickle  or  brine ; 
then  it  wil'  become  dry  in  the  interior  very  soon,  and  bear  being  moved 
about  with  greater  facility.  I  have  been  offered  by  some  showmen  a 
large  sum,  but  I  decline  parting  with  him,  intending  it  for  a  Lady's 
Museum.  A  Hodge-Podge,  as  you  will  perceive  in  the  Signal  line,  was 
months  since  deposited  with  Col.  Aspinwall ;  but  no  opportunity  has 
offered  of  sending  it  before  Captain  Tracy's  arrival.  I  am  too  old  to  pry 
into  modern  curiosities,  never  meaning  to  serve  again  against  friend  or  foe, 
but  do  as  much  good  as  I  can  for  the  rising  generation,  who  may,  when  I 
am  under  ground,  fight  it  out  in  any  way  most  convenient  to  the  parties. 

I  have  t'  ;  '•r  fired  a  shot  now  and  then,  avoiding  close  action,  as 

I  soon  o'  r  •  ,  e  our  Dr.  Sewell's  Meeting-House  in  Summer,  many 
members  .:ref   luring  long  and  tedious  harangues,  in  the  House  of 

Commoi  '      gnt  at  first  the  sound  of  my  own  voice  would  have 

alarmed  me  before  such  an  audience.  Having  had  occasion  often  to  ad- 
dress my  ship's  company  gave  a  facility  at  first  setting  off,  so  that  when 
blowing  hard  I  did  not  broach  to  or  get  becalmed  while  delivering  my 
sentiments  to  the  House.  Nothing  will  give  me  more  pleasure  than  once 
more  meeting  my  old  friends  at  Boston,  a  town  I  shall  ever  regard  as  long 
as  my  heart  is  left  to  beat. 

Kind  remembrances  to  your  spouse,  Nat  Amory,  and  all  the  other 
worthies.     Believe  me  always 

Very  FuthfuUy  Yours, 

Isaac  Coffin. 
Capt.  I.  Hull. 


fm'  *'- 


92 


THE  LIFE  OF 


if 


London,  26  Jan.,  1819. 
My  Dear  Sir  : 

There  is  an  old  sea  song  I  used  to  sing  when  creeping  in  Boston  Bay 
during  the  Revolutionary  War,  in  the  months  of  January  and  February, 
"  What  cannot  be  cured  must  be  endured." 

Many  thanks  for  kind  exertions.  Send  the  Lobster  when  you  can. 
My  reputation  will  be  saved,  though  my  money  is  gone ;  consign  it  to  the 
care  of  your  Consul  to  whom  I  have  written  on  the  subject,  and  remember 
in  return  if  you  do  not  command  my  services  in  a  way  that  I  can  be  useful 
to  you  it  will  be  your  own  fault.  Any  intelligence  you  can  afford  me  will 
be  most  interesting,  especially  on  nautical  or  agricultural  subjects.  I  have 
taken  my  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  may  one  of  these  days  be 
instigated  to  speak,  but  at  present  play  the  part  of  "  Orator  Mum." 
Remember  me  kindly  to  your  spouse,  Nat  Amory,  and  all  friends  in 
Boston,  believing  me  always,  my  dear  Captain, 

Very  truly  yours, 

Isaac  Coffin. 

Captain  Isaac  Hull,  Naval  Commissioner,  Boston. 


■l!!i(5?V!i,v  .la 


(To  General  Dearborn.) 

Leinington  Spa,  23d  July,  1827. 
My  Dear  Sir  : 

Please  to  accept  my  thanks  for  your  kind  recollection  of  my  wishes. 
The  Terrapin  you  had  the  goodness  to  send  me  is  in  the  safe  custody  of  my 
friend  William  Earle  at  Liverpool.  As  many  more  as  you  can  pick  up  in 
your  garden,  except  the  small  speckled  ones  and  snappers,  will  be  accept- 
able. The  latter  are  such  determined  deserters  that  no  bounty  or  kind 
treatment  will  keep  them  loyal.  In  early  life  I  have  seen  a  large  sort  with 
a  rough  bark  resembling  those  brought  by  your  whalers  from  the  Gallipagos 
Islands.  I  beg  you  to  present  my  kind  regards  to  all  my  Boston  friends. 
Sink  or  swim  I  never  can  forget  the  place  of  my  nativity  or  cease  to  wish 
prosperity  to  it. 

Ever  my  dear  Sir  truly  yours, 

Isaac  Coffin. 

General  Dearborn. 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


9$ 


(General  John  Coffin,  to  Stephen  De  Blots,  of  Boston.) 


St.  John's,  N.  B.,  Feb.  lo,  1830. 
My  Dear  Stephen  : 

You  are  now  from  various  unforeseen  and  melancholy  changes  that  have 
taken  place  in  your  circle  of  very  dear  friends,  left  as  almost  the  sole  sur- 
vivor. Time  and  chance  sets  all  adrift.  I  truly  condole  with  you  and 
them  in  the  loss  of  so  many  excellent  and  worthy  characters.  Boston  will 
never  be  to  me  what  it  has  been — not  that  my  affections  has  in  any  degree 
abated  for  those  remaining.  Such  however  being  the  will  of  Providence, 
we  must  submit  with  becoming  patience  and  fortitude,  looking  forward  to 
the  time  when  it  will  be  our  turn  to  follow.  I  am  passing  the  winter  in 
this  frozen  region,  and  what  with  good  friends  and  good  cheer,  I  am, 
thank  Providence,  enabled  to  carry  a  weather  helm,  and  maintain  a  toler- 
able share  of  health.  I  hope  this  may  find  you  and  Mrs.  Deblois  and 
family  enjoying  health  and  comfort,  and  that  all  my  friends  and  relations 
are  doing  the  same.  I  hardly  dare  ask  for  our  old  and  respectable  friends, 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  Dexter ;  to  them  and  my  friend  Tom  and  wife  with  their 
branches,  remember  me  in  the  kindest  terms ;  also  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Davis, 
Mrs.  Smith,  and  good  little  Maynard. 

Does  Mrs.  T.  C.  Amory  continue  to  be  your  neighbor  ?  To  her  and 
charming  family,  with  Mrs.  Jona  and  their  family,  my  kind  love  and  affec- 
tions. 

There  is  also  Mr.  John  Amory,  the  worthy  Doctors  of  Old  Trinity, 
Gardiner  Greene,  with  many  others  that  I  love  in  my  heart,  and  it  gives 
me  pleasure  to  nahie  them,  and  let  them  know  that  I  do  not  forget  them, 
and  the  comfort  and  gratification  I  have  enjoyed  in  a  long  and  early  ac- 
quaintance and  friendship.  I  am  fond  of  this  plain  old  fashioned  way  of 
keeping  alive  those  cheering  recollections  of  the  past  happy  days,  and  the 
absent.  I  am  with  them  as  far  as  the  most  kindly  feelings  towards  them 
can  be  allowed  to  exist.  Have  you  any  late  accounts  from  our  worthy 
cousin  Nat  and  wife,  Capt.  and  Mrs.  Derby,  friends  and  associates  rare  to 
be  met  with  in  this  or  any  other  hemisphere.  Are  they  allowed  to  hold 
their  appointments  under  your  new  President,  whose  vacillating  conduct 
has,  I  understand,  changed  the  position  of  many  in  politics.  I  never 
meddle  with  but  I  must  say  this  much,  I  do  not  envy  your  constitution  and 
government. 

Aside  and  between  ourselves,  what  has  induced  Sir  Isaac  to  desert  the 
country  thai  has  conferred  on  him  the  rank  and  consequence  he  now  en- 


94 


THE  LIFE  OF 


m 


joys  ?  Were  the  American  people  any  way  behind  those  of  Great  Britain 
in  nautical  tactics,  he  might  gain  some  applause.  But  I  am  sure  every 
well  thinking  man  with  you  must  condemn  him  for  deserting  the  country 
that  has  conferred  on  him  even  more  than  he  had  any  right  to  expect  or 
look  for.  I  am  afraid  his  fair  fame  and  character  will  be  much  clouded 
on  the  other  side  of  the  water  from  which  he  will  never  recover.  I  should 
not  be  surprised  to  hear  his  Majesty  had  struck  his  name  out  of  the  list  of 
Admirals.  The  injury  will  unfortunately  extend  to  every  branch  of  his 
family  connected  with  the  service  in  which  we  are  all  engaged.  I  cannot 
but  say  I  am  deeply  wounded  at  this  not  to  say  more  inconsiderate  con- 
duct.  He  must  have  taken  leave  of  his  senses.  It  is,  however,  too  painful 
a  subject  to  dwell  on,  and  I  shall  conclude  my  dear  cousin,  with  the  kind- 
est regards  to  all  the  De  Blois,  and  remain  your  very  attached, 

John  Coffin. 


;?#?■'; 


June,  1719. 
Dear  Coz  : 

Yours  I  received,  with  the  half  crown,  and  am  sorry  you  should  have 
troubled  yourself  about  so  small  a  matter  ;  that  or  any  command  should 
have  been  observed  without  such  punctualities.  I  ask  a  thousand  pardons 
for  my  long  silence ;  my  lady  Dichess  having  been  for  some  time  indis- 
posed that  I  could  not  gain  tnis  opportunity  sooner.  I  have  taken  the 
following  accompts,  from  the  worthies  of  Devonshire,  out  of  our  office ; 
and,  for  those  of  Hants,  they  shew  the  exact  arms  of  the  seal  of  my 
formers,  which  was  my  father's,  given  by  him  to  one  Mr.  James  Coffin,  of 
Christ  Church,  Hants,  in  whose  possession  it  is.  I  observe  those  of  Hants 
spell  with  the  letter  (y),  those  of  Devonshire,  as  you  see.  My  shortness  of 
time  will  not  allow  of  any  regard  to  stops,  and  scarcely  orthography,  so 
beg  your  excuse  for  all  faults,  as  well  as  a  line  just  to  satisfy  me  of  your 
receipt  of  this.  This  day,  se'nnight,  or  to-morrow,  his  Grace  intends  for 
Nottingham,  Lancashire,  and  York ;  so  that  if  you  have  any  commands 
to  communicate,  I  shall  be  proud  to  bear  them  ;  and  A.n  with  all  respect 
(my  mother  and  sister's  services  attending  you). 

Madam,  Your  most  humble  servant, 

Richard  Coffvn. 

For  Mrs.  Mary  Coffin,  at  Ramsdon  Heath,  in  Essex. 

[arms.]  Flor.,  A.D.  1533. 

R.  R.  Hen.  8. 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,   BART. 


n 


These  letters  afford  some  partial  glimpse  of  the  writers,  and  the  times 
in  which  they  lived.  They  are  presented  in  connection  with  the  memoirs  of 
Sir  Isaac,  that  his  kinsfolk  or  collectors  of  autographs  who  possess  any  letters 
of  his  own,  or  which  may  shed  light  on  his  career,  may  be  disposed  to  send 
the  originals  or  copies  to  some  central  and  accessible  repository,  where 
they  can  be  kept  together  for  the  benefit  of  other  generations.  The  fire- 
proof vaults  of  the  New  England  Genealogical  and  Historical  Society,  i8 
Somerset  Street,  in  Boston,  where  he  was  born,  are  suggested  as  a  fitting 
Place. 


96 


THE  LIFE  OF 


XX. 


THE  COFFIN  SCHOOLS. 


The  letter  to  his  cousin,  p.  88,  shows  that  Sir  Isaac  had  determined  to  es- 
tablish in  Massachusetts  a  system  of  nautical  schools — one  for  Boston,  one 
for  Newburyport,  and  another  later  at  Nantucket.  Having  had  occasion  to 
learn,  when  in  our  city  council  and  on  our  school  board,  how  very  general 
an  impression  then  existed  of  the  importance  of  thus  building  up  our  com- 
mercial marine,  it  seemed  due  to  the  memory  of  Sir  Isaac  to  comprise  in 
this  memoir  the  sketch  of  what  he  intended  his  schools  should  be.  Mr. 
Folger,  who  possesses  what  seems  a  copy  of  the  original  draught  of  a  will 
of  his,  in  which  he  had  himself  set  forth  his  plan,  permits  me  to  use  it. 
The  admiral,  from  his  own  experience  as  a  midshipman  and  forty  years  in 
service,  more  or  less  active  in  the  navy,  had  an  experience  which  gives 
value  to  his  ideas  of  nautical  education. 

The  Clio  was  bought,  equipped,  and  used  some  years,  and  no  doubt  edu- 
cated many  excellent  seamen.  His  kinsman,  Hector,  of  the  Newburypoit 
branch  of  the  Coffins,  was  in  many  ways  well  fitted  to  take  charge.  It 
will  be  seen  that  ten  years  after  the  inception  of  the  plan,  the  Clio  was  still 
employed  in  the  task.  It  involved  more  cost  than  was  contemplated,  and 
was  given  up  about  the  time  Sir  Isaac  founded  the  Coffin  school  at  Nan- 
tucket, which,  with  means  largely  accumulated,  is  in  a  full  career  of  useful- 
ness, though  somewhat  modified  in  its  methods  and  scope  from  what  the 
founder  contemplated. 

The  plan  for  the  nautical  schools  is  thus  set  forth  in  the  will,  revoked, 
if  it  still  existed,  when  he  made  his  last  will  the  year  that  he  died. 


WM 


This  is  the  Last  Will  and  Testament  of  me,  Sir  Isaac  Coffin, 
Baronet,  an  Admiral  in  the  service  of  his  Majesty  George  the  Fourth, 
King  of  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britian  and  Ireland. 

I  direct  all  my  just  debts  and  funeral  expenses,  and  the  costs  and  charges 
of  proving  this  my  will,  to  be  paid.  And  holding  in  grateful  remembrance 
the  manifold  blessings  I  have  derived  from  the  principles  instilled  into  me 
while  at  Boston,  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  the  place  of  my  nativity, 
and  feeling  that  the  success  I  have  experienced  in  this  life  is  mainly  to  be 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


97 


attributed  to  the  excellent  education  I  received  at  that  place,  and  wishing 
that  none  of  my  relations,  being  lineal  descendants  of  Tristram  Coffin,  who 
settled  in  the  township  of  Salsbury,  near  Newbury  Port,  in  the  said  State  of 
Massachusetts,  in  or  about  the  year  one  thousand  six  hundred  and  forty. 
two,  and  of  Peter  Coffin,  his  brother,*  and  bearing  or  taking  the  name  of 
Coffin,  may  ever  want  the  means  of  obtaining  those  advantages  so  bounti- 
fully bestowed  on  me,  1  give  and  bequeath  all  the  personal  property  of 
which  I  may  be  possessed,  or  to  which  I  may  be  entitled  at  my  death,  in 
possession,  revision,  or  expectantly,  to  my  executors  hereinafter  named,  in 
trust,  to  transfer  the  same  to  seven  trustees,  to  be  appointed  as  hereinafter 
provided,  for  the  establishment  of  three  schools  for  naval  education,  one  at 
said  Boston,  one  at  Nantucket,  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  and  one  at 
said  Newbury  Port.  And  fo  i'^'*  purpose  of  maintaining  and  perpetuating 
such  establishments  according  to  this,  my  last  will,  I  do  appoint  five  vis- 
itors or  overseers  of  the  said  trust ;  that  is  to  say  :  whoever  shall  be,  for  the 
time  being,  successively  the  governor  of  the  said  State  of  Massachusetts, 
the  president  of  Harvard  University  at  Cambridge  in  the  said  State,  and 
the  Mayor  of  the  said  city  of  Boston,  with  two  others  to  be  chosen  by  the 
said  three  ;  and  the  said  visitors  shall  have  the  power  to  fill  all  vacancies 
that  shall  occur  in  their  own  body,  whether  by  death  or  resignation  of  any 
visitor  that  may  be  chosen  as  aforesaid,  or  from  the  discontinuance  or 
other  change  of  either  of  the  said  three  officers. 

Item  :  1  do  authorise  and  request  the  said  visitors,  as  soon  as  may  be 
after  my  decease,  to  nominate  and  appoint  seven  discreet  and  faithful  per- 
sons to  be  Trustees  for  the  establishment  of  the  said  three  schools  ;  and  if 
they  shall  not  make  such  appointment  within  one  year  after  this  my  will 
shall  have  been  duely  proved  and  allowed,  then  1  authorise  and  request 
my  Executors  to  appoint  the  said  seven  Trustees,  and  the  said  Trustees, 
when  appointed  in  either  of  the  modes  above  mentioned,  shall  forever 
thereafter  fill  all  vacancies  in  their  own  body,  their  election  in  each  case 
to  be  submitted  without  delay  to  the  said  visitors  for  their  approbation, 
and  to  be  void  if  disaproved  by  the  visitors  ;  and  if  the  Trustees  shall  refuse 
or  neglect  to  fill  any  such  vacancy  for  the  space  of  three  months  after  the 
same  shall  occur,  and  for  the  same  length  of  time  after  being  notified  of 
the  vacancy  by  the  visitors  and  being  requested  by  them  to  proceed  to  a 
choice,  u»en  the  said  visitors  are  authorised  and  requested  forthwith  to  fill 
such  vacancy  by  the  appointment  of  a  Trustee.  And  I  do  further  author- 
ise the  said  visitors,  from  time  to  time,  to  remove  any  of  the  said  Trustees 


*  His  son. 


98 


THE  LIFE  OF 


who  shall  in  the  opinion  of  the  visitors  become  incapable  or  unfit  by 
reason  of  age,  infirmity,  or  any  other  cause  to  discharge  the  duties  of  his 
office. 

Item  :  I  do  order  and  request  my  Executors  hereinafter  named,  as  soon 
as  may  be  after  my  decease,  to  pay  over,  deliver,  assign,  and  transfer  to 
the  said  Trustees  all  my  said  personal  estate  herein  above  bequeathed  to 
the  said  Trustees,  to  be  held  by  them  upon  the  trusts  and  for  the  purposes 
following  ;  that  is  to  say  :  all  that  part  of  my  said  estate  which  may  at  the 
time  of  my  decease  be  invested  in  the  British  funds  to  be  kept  to  accumu- 
late by  investing  the  interest  from  the  time  in  the  like  stock,  and  adding 
it  to  the  principal,  for  sixty  years  after  my  decease,  if  the  rules  of  law  or 
equity  will  allow  it ;  otherwise,  for  any  less  time  than  sixty  years  that  shall 
be  all'vable;  and  if  from  any  cause  it  should  become  impracticable  or 
greatl)  Jisadvantageous  to  the  said  establishment  to  keep  the  last-men- 
tioned part  of  my  estate  invested  as  aforesaid  in  the  British  funds,  then 
I  authorise  the  said  Trustees,  with  the  consent  and  approbation  of  the  said 
visitors,  to  withdraw  the  whole  of  said  monies  from  the  British  funds,  and 
invest  the  same  in  other  stocks  or  funds,  or  in  real  estate,  or  put  the  same 
out  at  interest  to  be  accumulated  as  aforesaid,  as  they  shall  think  best  for 
the  establishment ;  and  in  either  case,  when  the  said  fund  shall  cease  to 
be  accumulated  as  aforesaid,  whether  by  force  of  the  above-written  limita- 
tion or  of  the  rules  of  law,  it  shall  be  appropriated,  together  with  the  other 
property  herein  bequeathed  to  the  said  Trustees,  to  the  maintenance  of  the 
said  schools,  as  hereinafter  provided ;  and  as  to  the  residue  of  my  said 
estate,  bequeathed  as  aforesaid  (as  also  the  part  thereof  last  above  men- 
tioned, when  the  said  trust  for  accumulation  shall  cease),  the  said  Trustees 
shall  from  time  to  time  invest  the  same  in  any  stocks  or  funds,  or  in  real 
estate,  or  put  the  same  out  at  interest,  as  shall  be  warranted  and  allowed 
by  law,  and  shall  appear  to  be  secure  and  most  for  the  advantage  of  the 
said  establishment ;  and  if  it  shall  hereafter  appear  to  the  said  Visitors  and 
Trustees  that  the  property  herein  given  to  the  said  Trustees  can  be  better 
managed  and  secured,  and  the  purposes  of  this  my  will  be  better  attained, 
by  an  incorporation  of  the  said  Trustees  and  Visitors,  or  either  of  them,  I 
do  hereby,  so  far  as  in  me  lies,  assent  to  such  incorporation,  and  do  request 
that  the  same  may  be  granted  accordingly  by  the  competent  authority  of 
the  said  State  of  Massachusetts  on  the  application  of  the  said  Visitors  and 
Trustees.  And  the  said  Trustees  shall  have  the  care  and  immediate  over- 
sight of  the  said  schools,  and  may  make  all  necessary  and  proper  rules  and 
regulations  for  the  discipline  and  instruction  and  the  general  government 
thereof,  provided  they  be  not  inconsistent  with  the  regulations  in  that  be- 


^^m 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,   BART. 


99 


half  contained  in  this  my  will,  and  all  such  rules  and  regulations  shall  be 
in  full  force  and  operation  until  repealed  by  the  said  Visitors. 

Hem :  I  will  and  direct  that  each  of  such  schools  shall  be  on  the  follow- 
ing plan  and  Foundation,  viz.:  Each  to  be  called  "Sir  Isaac  Coffin's  School." 
One  of  such  schools,  being  the  school  to  be  first  established,  to  be  at  Bos- 
ton, in  such  a  situation  that  the  scholars  may  be  near  the  water-side  and 
have  ready  access  to  the  Harbour.  The  school  to  consist  of  twenty-four 
scholars ;  twelve  of  them,  if  so  many  may  be  found,  are  to  be  the  male  de- 
scendants, deriving  their  descent  through  males  of  the  said  Tristram  Coffin, 
and  of  said  Peter  Coffin,  respectively,  or  one  of  them,  and  to  bear,  or  before 
entrance  into  the  school,  to  take  and  assume  the  name  of  Coffin.  If  male 
relations,  deriving  their  pedigree  through  males,  should  not  be  found,  then 
descendants  by  the  female  line  may  be  chosen,  and  they  to  assume  and 
bear  and  write  the  name  of  Coffin  before  they  enter  into  the  school.  And 
I  direct  that  such  twelve  scholars  of  each  school  shall  be  fed,  clothed,  and 
lodged  out  of  the  income  of  the  funds  of  the  establishment.  And  I  direct 
that  three  masters  be  appointed  for  each  school,  viz. :  a  Master  of  a  Ship, 
a  Mathematical  Master,  and  a  Drawing  Master,  each  to  be  of  good  Morals 
and  reputation  and  well  qualified  for  his  department.  Such  three  persons 
will,  in  my  humble  judgment,  be  sufficient  to  prepare  the  boys  for  the  pro- 
fession they  are  designed  to  follow.  And  I  direct  that  the  remaining 
twelve  boys  of  the  school  at  Boston  shall  be  selected  from  the  sons  of  hon- 
est and  industrious  inhabitants  of  Boston  who  may  be  desirous  of  breeding 
up  their  sons  for  a  nautical  life.  And  it  is  further  my  will  that  the  sons  of 
the  poorest  citizens  shall  be  preferred,  and  that  no  boy  shall  be  eligible 
who  shall  have  any  bodily  deformity,  or  who  shall  not  be  of  a  sound  con- 
stitution, or  who  shall  not  have  had  the  small-pox,  or  have  been  vaccinated. 
It  is  further  my  will  that  no  boy  shall  be  admitted  until  he  shall  have  at- 
tained the  age  of  fourteen  years,  and  that  each  boy  should  be  able  to  read, 
and  also  to  write  a  legible  hand,  and  have  a  competant  knowledge  of  Arith- 
metic, and  be  of  Christian  persuasion,  and  if  a  classical  scholar,  he  is  on 
that  account  to  be  entitled  caeteris  paribus  to  preference.  Each  boy  shall 
leave  the  school  at  the  age  of  eighteen.  And  I  direct  that  the  Ship  Master, 
Mathematical  Master,  and  Drawing  Master  should  respectively  be  riative 
citizens  of  Massachusetts. 

Item :  As  my  said  property  may  not  be  sufficient  to  found  the  three 
schools  to  commence  at  the  same  time,  I  direct  the  school  at  Boston  to  be 
first  established,  and  as  the  funds  accumulate,  to  form  the  second  of  such 
establishments  at  Newbury  Fort.  And,  as  future  funds  accumulate,  to 
form  the  third  and  last  of  such  establishments  at  Nantucket.    And  I  direct 


w 


ICX) 


THE  LIFE  OF 


that  each  of  such  schools  shall  be  conducted  on  similar  plans,  and  each 
school  to  be  limited  to  the  number  of  twenty-four  boys,  and  all  the  boys 
beyond  the  twelve  of  the  Coffin  family  to  be  chosen  by  the  Trustees  out 
of  the  respective  Towns  in  which  such  schools  are  to  be  established  ;  and 
on  failure  of  that  number,  then  to  be  selected  from  any  other  part  of  the 
State  of  Massachusetts.     But  this  shall  not  prevent  the  Trustees  from  ad- 
mitting additional  scholars  on  payment  of  such  sums  for  their  tuition  as 
the  Trustees  shall  prescribe,  when  it  can  be  done  without  injury  to  the 
establishment.    And,  whereas  the  branches  of  the  family  of  the  said  Tristram 
Coffin  and  Peter  Coffin  are  spread  over  the  Continent  of  North  America 
and  Europe,  and  are  my  relations,  I  direct  that  any  of  them,  and  of  what- 
ever country  they  may  be  natives,  shall  forever  be  eligible  to  be  placed 
in  each  of  the  said  schools,  the  number  of  twelve   such  relations  being 
always  entitled  to  the  preference  to  be  scholars  on  each  of  such  founda- 
tions when  of  a  proper  age,  and  if  such  relations  can  be  traced ;  and  the 
said  Trustees  shall  have  the  exclusive  right  and  power  of  certifying  the 
fact  of  descent  and  right  of  eligibility.   And  I  direct  that  for  the  admission 
of  each  boy,  an  application  shall  be  made  to  the  said  Trustees  three  calen- 
dar months  before  he  can  be  admitted  upon  any  vacancy  ;   and  that  the 
day  of  admission  shall  be  the  sixteenth  of  May  in  every  year  (being  the 
anniversary  of  my  birthday).     And  I  direct  that  no  candidate  shall  be 
admitted  unless  a  physician  and  surgeon,  to  be  appointed  by  the  said  Trus- 
tees, shall  certify  to  them,  after  due  examination,  that  such  candidate  is, 
as  to  bodily  health,  fit  for  the  life  of  a  Sailor.  And  I  direct  that,  as  between 
different  applicants  for  admission,  the  said  Trustees,  or  the  major  part  of  them, 
shall  have  the  selection  and  choice,  and  that  proximity  of  blood  among  per- 
sons of  the  sirname,  or  being  descendants  from  the  said  Tristram  Coffin  and 
Peter  Coffin,  respectively,  shall  not  confer  any  right  of  preference.     And 
I  direct  that,  adjacent  to  each  school,  a  house  should,  if  it  be  deemed 
expedient,  be  obtained  by  purchase  or  hiring  on  lease,  and  furnished  for 
the  residence  of  the  Ship-Master  of  each  school.     And  I  direct  that  the 
Ship-Master  for  each  School  shall  have  the  direction,  care,  and  superinten- 
dence of  the  said  boys  on  that  foundation  to  which  he  shall  be  attached, 
and  of  their  board  and  lodging,  and  his  board  and  lodging  gratis  in  the 
same  house.    And  I  direct  that  his  accounts  of  expenditure  for  board 
and  lodging  shall  be  submitted  to  the  annual  inspection  of  the  Trustees ; 
and  that  the  Trustees  (should  there  be  occasion)  may,  with  the  assent 
of  the  Visitors,  remove  any  of  the  said  Masters  for  misconduct  or  want 
of  qualification. 

Hem :  For  promoting  the  welfare  of  the  said  establishment,  I  direct 


■■■■ 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


lOI 


that  for  each  of  the  said  schools  a  sloop  of  fifty  tons,  coppered  and  copper 
fastened,  shall  be  built  or  provided  at  the  expense  of  the  establishment, 
combining  strength,  convenience,  fast  sailing,  and  durability,  and  furnished 
with  bed-places  and  all  requisite  conveniences  for  the  scholars ;  and  that  the 
scholars  of  the  Boston  foundation  shall  be  exercised  in  cruising  in  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  and  the  neighboring  coast,  from  the  tenth  day  of  May  to  the 
tenth  day  of  September  in  each  year,  by  which  means  they  will  become 
excellent  pilots  ;  and  they  are  to  be  put  into  and  survey  all  the  harbors  from 
Passamaquoddy  to  Nantucket,  and  to  trawl  and  drudge  on  every  part  of 
the  coast,  and  on  all  occasions,  to  try  to  discover  the  treasures  of  the  deep ; 
and  to  keep  an  accurate  journal  of  their  proceedings,  and  use  their  fishing- 
lines,  of  every  kind,  when  opportunity  may  offer ;  and,  by  keeping  the  body 
and  mind  in  constant  activity,  they  will  prepare  themselves  for  the  arduous 
career  incident  to  the  life  of  a  seaman  ;  and  they  are  not  to  lose  any  op- 
portunity of  making  astronomical  and  nautical  observations.  The  sloop 
to  be  caulked. and  kept  in  repair  and  sails,  rigging,  and  hull,  by  the  personal 
labor  of  the  masters  and  scholars,  and  to  be  called  *'  The  Seaman's  Hope," 
carrying  a  white  flag  with  a  pine-tree  in  the  centre.  And  I  direct  that  the 
boys,  in  the  two  first  classes  of  each  establishment,  shall  be  exercised  two 
years  in  the  sloop  of  such  establishment  prior  to  leaving  school.  And  I 
direct  that  the  sloop  belonging  to  the  Newbury  Port  School  shall  cruise 
from  Cape  Cod,  round  Boston  Bay  to  Passamaquoddy,  and  that  the  sloop 
belonging  to  the  Nantucket  School  shall  cruise  from  Cape  Cod  one  way, 
to  New  York  the  other  way,  trawling  and  drudging  assiduously  as  the 
ground  will  admit,  since  I  conceive  many  oyster-beds  may  be  dis- 
covered in  Long  Island  Sound,  and  between  Montauck  Point  and  Sandy 
Hook.  And  it  is  my  further  direction  that  the  boys  of  each  school  shall, 
from  their  entry  to  their  departure,  wear  a  blue  jacket  and  trousers  of  good 
cloth  of  the  second  or  third  quality,  with  blue  knit  stockings  of  worsted  in 
winter,  and  cotton  in  summer,  and  shall  have  an  anchor  on  the  right  arm, 
of  red  cloth,  by  which  they  may  always  be  known  and  distinguished.  And 
as  the  vessel  may  go  into  the  Bay  in  severe  weather,  I  direct  that  a  com- 
petent number  of  greatcoats  be  provided,  lined  with  baize  made  up  of  No. 
4  canvas  and  painted,  and  also  foraging  leather  caps  to  cover  their  heads, 
and  with  a  small  anchor  in  front  of  each  cap.  Also,  that  the  boat  be 
provided  and  hoisted  up  at  any  wharf  in  the  vicinity  of  each  school  at 
which  permission  may  be  obtained,  and  rowing  twelve  oars  double-banked, 
and  having  cork  apparatus  sufficient  to  float  her  when  overset ;  and  in  that 
boat  the  two  junior  classes  of  each  school  shall  be  exercised  from  the  tenth 
day  of  May  to  the  tenth  day  of  September  in  each  year,  thus  combining 


wmm' 


Ilf 


102 


THE  LIFE  OF 


exertion  with  pleasure.  And  I  direct  that  each  of  the  scholars  shall  learn 
to  swim,  and  each  acquire  a  knowledge  of  the  following  trades  or  callings — 
that  is  to  say :  Ship-building,  caulking,  rope-making,  block-making,  mast- 
making,  boat-building,  coopering,  house-carpenter's  and  joiner's  work, 
baking,  blacksmith's  work,  cutting  and  making  clothes,  knitting,  making 
nets  of  all  kinds,  mixing  paints  and  painting,  the  art  of  cooking  in  all  its 
branches,  the  art  of  slaughtering  animals  with  due  economy,  also  of  pre- 
serving meat  by  pickling,  salting,  or  smoking.  I  also  direct  that  muskets 
be  provided  and  kept  up,  to  belong  to  each  school,  that  the  boys  of  the 
first  class  may  be  exercised  by  the  Ship-Master,  at  such  time  as  he  may 
think  most  convenient,  in  firing  at  a  mark,  and  such  guns  always  to  be 
cleaned  and  put  by  by  the  scholars  of  the  said  class.  And  I  direct  that 
the  scholars  be  taught  the  use  of  the  backsword,  the  art  of  gunnery,  and  fire- 
lock exercise,  and  be  at  liberty  to  amuse  themselves  at  proper  times  with 
athletic  games,  such  as  cricket,  foot-ball,  wrestling,  at  the  discretion  of  the 
Ship-Master  and  Mathematical  Master,  one  of  whom  is  always  to  be  in  at- 
tendance on  the  scholars  as  their  charge.  And  I  will  and  direct  that  each 
boy  shall  be  at  his  studies  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning  in  the  summer, 
and  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  in  the  winter.  The  scholars  to  be  at 
breakfast  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  summer,  and  at  eight  o'clock  in  the 
winter ;  and  winter  is  to  be  reckoned  to  commence  from  the  first  day  of 
November  and  to  end  on  the  thirtieth  day  of  April.  The  boys  to  dine  at 
one  o'clock  in  the  summer,  and  to  be  allowed  one  hour  and  a  half  for  the 
interval  between  school ;  to  Jine  in  winter  at  one  o'clock,  and  to  be 
allowed  one  hour  between  school,  and  to  have  two  half-holidays  in  each 
week,  commencing  from '  one  o'clock ;  the  boys  on  the  foundation  who 
shall  not  have  any  relations  in  town,  to  be  regulated  as  to  their  absence  by 
the  Ship-Master ;  and  all  the  boys  to  sup  in  winter  and  summer  at  eight 
o'clock  and  be  in  bed  by  nine.  Their  food  to  consist  of  rice,  Indian  meal, 
and  bread,  with  milk  and  molasses  or  sugar,  for  breakfast ;  mutton,  beef, 
pork,  and  fish,  with  potatoes  and  other  vegetables  and  soups,  according  to 
the  judgment  of  the  Ship-Master,  for  dinner,  and  in  such  proportions  as  may 
be  equal  to  the  several  wants  of  the  boys,  avoiding  waste  and  profusion. 
The  boys  to  have  for  supper  the  same  kind  of  food  as  for  breukfast. 

Ifgm  :  I  will  and  direct  that  the  said  Trustees  shall  visit  and  examine 
the  said  school  in  Boston  at  least  four  times  a  year,  and  oftener  if  they 
think  proper  ;  and  I  do  request  that  the  said  Visitors  join  in  such  examina- 
tion at  least  once  a  year ;  and  I  further  authorize  and  request  the  said  Vis- 
itors to  depute  and  appoint  the  respective  School  Committees,  or  Select- 
men, for  the  time  being,  of  the  said  towns  of  Nantucket  and  Newbury 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


103 


Port,  or  such  other  persons  as  the  Visitors  shall  nominate,  to  make  a  like 
visitation  and  exammation  of  the  schools  in  those  towns  respectively,  and 
to  report  their  observations  to  the  said  Visitors,  in  order  that  all  defects  in 
the  course  of  discipline  and  instruction  in  the  said  three  schools  may  be 
discovered  and  corrected,  and  that  such  improvements  may  be  made 
therein,  by  the  said  Trustees  and  Visitors,  as  they  shall  judge  proper,  and 
not  inconsistent  with  the  general  object  and  plan  of  the  schools  as  expressed 
in  this  my  Will.  And  in  case  of  the  misconduct  of  any  scholar  which  can- 
not be  sufficiently  punished  or  repressed  by  the  ordinary  discipline  of  the 
school,  the  Trustees  may,  on  complaint  by  the  Mathematical  Master  or 
Ship-Master,  inquire  into  the  same,  and,  if  they  think  proper,  admonish  the 
scholar ;  and  on  a  second  complaint,  they  may  sentence  him  to  a  short  soli- 
tary confinement ;  and  if  this  should  prove  ir.  efficient,  such  boy  may  b*;  ex- 
pelled ;  or  any  boy  may  be  expelled  in  the  first  instance  for  any  aggravated 
offence  that  shows  him  to  be  wholly  unworthy  of  enjoying  the  benefits  of 
the  school ;  and  no  boy  once  expelled  shall  ever  be  reinstated. 

Item :  As  the  Lancasterian  or  Bell  system  of  education  has,  in  most 
countries,  been  found  very  beneficial,  I  should  wish  the  schools  to  be  regu- 
lated as  nearly  as  possible  on  that  plan,  or  any  improvement  thereon.  And 
I  direct  that  in  each  school  there  may  be  four  classes,  and  the  boy  most 
conspicuous  for  talents  and  proficiency  in  each  class  to  be  placed  at  the 
head  of  that  class  as  a  monitor.  Each  boy  of  the  senior  to  have  a  boy  of 
the  second  class  to  instruct,  and  each  boy  of  the  second  class  to  have  one 
of  the  boys  of  the  third  class  to  instruct,  and  each  boy  of  the  third  class  to 
have  a  boy  of  the  fourth  class  to  instruct.  By  these  regulations  knowledge 
will  be  rapidly  dittused,  and  the  education  of  the  young  men  sooner  com- 
pleted. I  wish  the  boys  to  be  in  every  respect  as  well  qualified  in  mathe- 
matical and  astronomical  knowledge  as  the  scholars  at  the  Naval  College 
at  Portsmouth,  in  England,  are  qualified,  and  to  complete  the  like  plan  as  is 
observed  in  that  academy.  And  I  will  and  direct  that  each  Mathematical 
Master,  in  addition  to  his  other  qualifications,  should  be  competent  to  give 
lectures  on  the  several  heads  of  natural  philosophy,  namely,  pneumatics, 
hydraulics,  optics,  mechanics,  electricity,  astronomy,  geology,  geography 
with  the  use  of  the  globes  ;  and  that  a  philosophical  apparatus  should  be 
provided  at  the  expense  of  each  establishment.  And  1  direct  that  each 
school  should  be  provided  with  Ree's  Encyclopaedia,  printed  and  published 
in  America,  and  a  competent  number  of  books  which  treat  or  may  treat  on 
professional  matters.  I  direct  also  that  models  of  a  ship,  brig,  snow- 
schooner,  and  sloop  be  provided  in  each  school,  and  that  the  boys  may  be 
practised  in  rigging  and  unrigging  the  same  during  the  winter.    And  I 


I 


. 


m 


104 


THE  LIFE  OF 


recommend  that  shops  be  built  near  the  school  wherein  the  different  trades 
enumerated  for  the  boys  to  learn  may  be  taught.  I  also  direct  that  Arrow- 
smith's  Mercator's  chart  of  the  world,  and  spherical  chart,  together  with 
maps  of  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe,  should  be  hung  up  on  springs  in  each 
school,  so  that  ready  access  can  be  had  to  the  maps ;  and  that  a  pair  of 
globes  should  be  provided  for  each  school.  And  I  direct  that,  when  either 
of  the  said  schools  should  be  complele,  and  the  boys  of  tiie  senior  class 
be  about  to  leave  it,  an  examination  should  take  place  touching  their 
abilities,  when  all  the  Selectmen  and  Magistrates,  Captains  and  Officers  of 
the  United  States  Navy  residing  at  Boston,  Newbury  Port,  or  Nantucl^et, 
and  respectable  Masters  of  ships  should,  by  public  advertisement,  be  invited 
to  attend.  And  after  such  examination  I  direct  that  each  boy,  on  leaving 
the  school,  should,  if  merited,  have  a  mark  of  approbation,  i.e.,  the  first 
boy  a  silver  medal,  and  I  direct  that  the  silver  medal  shall  have  engraved 
on  one  side  a  ship  completely  rigged  with  a  motto,  "  I  aspire  to  com- 
mand," and  on  the  other  side  "  God  is  my  Guide,"  with  a  wreath  of  laurel 
and  a  sextant ;  the  second  boy  a  sextant ;  the  third  boy  a  quadrant ;  the 
fourth  boy  a  case  of  mathematical  instruments  ;  the  fifth  boy  a  treatise  on 
Navigation  ;  the  sixth  boy  the  book  called  "  A  Coasting  Pilot,"  or  the  best 
substitute  for  it ;  and  if  there  be  any  more,  the  seventh  boy  a  fishing-line 
of  sixty  fathoms  with  lead  and  six  cod-hooks ;  the  eighth  boy  a  chest  for  his 
clothes  ;  the  ninth  boy  a  Gunter's  scale  and  a  pair  of  compasses,  and  each 
of  the  others  a  jack-knife  ;  each  boy  also  to  have  a  Bible,  and  a  certificate, 
signed  by  the  Ship-Master  and  the  Mathematical  Master,  that  he  was  edu- 
cated at  Sir  Isaac  Coffin's  School.  And  I  direct  that  a  proper  book  be 
kept  by  each  Ship-Master  by  way  of  registry  of  the  names  of  all  the  scholars, 
stating  their  ages  and  their  respective  proficiency  in  the  sciences  taught  at 
each  school ;  such  book,  together  with  the  plans  and  drawings  of  the  boys 
who  may  excel,  to  be  preserved  in  the  library  of  '  ne  school.  And  it  is  my 
direction  that  the  Ship-Master  of  each  school  shall  be  thirty  years  of  age 
before  he  shall  be  qualified  to  conduct  the  affairs  of  the  establishment,  and 
shall  not  be  eligible  after  the  age  of  forty-five  years  ;  and  that  he  may,  if  he 
think  fit,  or  be  required  by  the  Trustees  to,  retire  at  any  time  after  the  age 
of  sixty,  with  an  annuity  for  his  life  of  fifty  pounds  sterling  per  annum.  And 
that  the  Mathematical  Master  shall  not  be  admitted  after  the  age  of  thirty 
years,  and  may  retire  at  any  time  after  sixty  years,  if  he  should  so  desire,  or 
be  required  as  aforesaid,  with  an  annuity  of  fifty  pounds  for  his  life.  The 
Drawing'Master  to  be  admitted  at  any  age  between  twenty-one  and  forty- 
five  years,  and  may  retire  at  any  time  after  sixty,  if  he  should  so  desire  or 
be  so  required,  with  an  annuity  for  his  life  of  forty  pounds  per  annum. 


ADMIRAL   SIR  ISAAC   COFFIN,  BART. 


105 


^t  trades 
Lt  Arrow- 
iher  with 
s  in  each 
I  pair  of 
en  either 
lior  class 
ing  their 
)fticers  of 
antutket, 
)e  invited 
1  leaving 
the  first 
engraved 
to  com- 
of  laurel 
rant ;  the 
reatise  on 
r  the  best 
shing-line 
est  for  his 
and  each 
ertificate, 
was  edu- 
)ook  be 
scholars, 
taught  at 
the  boys 
it  is  my 
.rs  of  age 
ment,  and 
may,  if  he 
ir  the  age 
um.    And 
of  thirty 
desire,  or 
ife.    The 
:nd  forty- 
desire  or 
lum. 


/Urn  :  Having  suggested,  so  far  as  my  experience  enables  me,  the  requi- 
sites for  forming  a  set  of  men  who  may  be  useful  to  my  native  country, 
my  consideration  has  been  to  provide  the  funds  tor  establishing  the  said 
Foundation.  I  have  at  present,  standing  in  the  names  of  the  Trustees  of 
my  marriage  settlement,  which,  after  the  death  of  my  wife,  will  be  part  of 
my  property,  about  seven  hundred  pounds  a  year  in  the  English  Funds, 
and  in  my  own  name  six  hundred  pounds  a  year  in  the  Funds  of  the  United 
States,  and  money  and  stock  in  the  French  Funds,  which  sums  may  be 
more  or  less,  and  I  may  considerably  increase  them  in  my  lifetime.  Should 
the  income  of  the  funds  be  adequate  after  what  is  above  disposed  of,  I  di- 
rect that  sums  not  exceeding  fifty  pounds  per  annum  should  be  given  to 
each  of  twelve  aged  and  infirm  Masters  of  Merchant  Ships,  who  may  be 
worn  out  and  unable  to  support  themselves,  at  Boston,  Nantucket,  or  New- 
bury Port,  giving  the  preference  to  the  descendants  of  Tristram  Coffin  and 
Peter  Coffin  in  the  male  or  female  lines.  And  should  there  be  any  surplus 
fund  after  supporting  and  maintaining  the  aforesaid  three  establishments, 
and  after  paying  the  said  annuities  to  the  said  twelve  aged  and  infirm  Mas- 
ters of  ships,  I  direct  that  such  surplus  be  given,  by  way  of  annual  income, 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  aged  and  infirm  branches,  members  for  tii*^ 
time  being  of  the  Coffin  frimily  from  the  said  two  stocks,  in  such  r  way 
and  proportion  as  the  said  Trustees  may  adjudge. 

I/em  ;  I  revoke  all  other  wills  made  by  me  at  any  time  heretofore.  And 
I  nominate,  constitute,  and  appoint  Jonathan  Amory  and  Henry  Codman, 
both  of  said  Boston,  Esquires,  William  Appleton,  Jonathan  Amory,  Jun., 
Thomas  Coffin  Amory,  Edward  Gardiner  Davis,  M.D.,  George  Minot  Dex- 
ter, William  Davis  Sohier,  Edward  William  Payne,  and  Thomas  Amory  De- 
blois,  all  of  said  Boston,  Esquires,  to  be  Executors  of  this  my  Will  and 
Testament,  and  desire  that  all  their  expenses  may  be  borne  and  paid  out 
of  my  estate. 

In  Witness  Whereof  I  have,  to  this  my  last  Will  and  Testament,  con- 
tained in  eight  sheets  of  paper,  set  my  hand  and  seal  (that  is  to  say),  my 
hand  only  to  the  first  seven  sheets,  and  my  hand  and  seal  to  this  the  eighth 
and  last  sheet,  this  fourth  day  of  September,  in  the  year  of  the  reign 

of  George  the  fourth,  and  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand. 

Signed,  sealed,  published,  and  declared  by  the  said  Testator  as  and  for 
his  last  Will  and  Testament,  in  the  presence  of  us,  who  at  his  request  and 
in  his  presence,  and  also  in  the  presence  of  each  other,  have  hereunto  sub- 
scribed our  names  as  witnesses. 


io6 


THE  LIFE  OF 


Boston,  1 6th  Sept.,  1829. 
Mv  Dear  Sir  : 

No  event  of  my  life  has  ever  afforded  me  more  pleasure  than  my  late 
visit  to  Nantucket — and  as  you  have,  from  the  commencement  of  my  efiforts 
to  form  the  establishment  for  our  young  relations,  mainly  contributed 
thereto,  I  beg  once  more  to  offer  you  my  best  thanks. 

But  {or  you,  piobably,  we  should  never  have  witnessed  the  affecting  and 
gratifying  exhibition  of  the  children  at  the  seminary. 

You  will  hear  I  have  taken  much  interest  in  the  equipment  of  the  Brig, 
giving  the  boys  plenty  of  pumpkins,  squashes,  apples,  and  good  advice. 
They  go  to  their  work  viith  a.  Aearfy  good  wU/.  I  pray  God  they  may  make 
good  men.  They  clear  out  this  day,  and  sail  to-morrow.  Little  or  no  gout 
since  we  parted.  I  start  for  New  York  to-morrow.  Early  in  Noveuiber 
go  to  Norfolk,  thence  to  South  Carolina.  Kind  regards  to  your  family, 
the  Trustees,  your  son,  and  the  children,  and  ail  relations. 

Ever  sincerely  yours, 
Wm.  Coffin,  Esq.  (Signed)  Isaac  Coffin. 


The  nautical  schools  involving  too  large  an  expenditure,  and  having,  as 
his  brother  John  writes  his  cousin  Stephen  Deblois,  provoked  criticism  at 
home,  Sir  Isaac  directed  his  attention  to  establishing  a  school  at  Nantucket. 
This  still  exists,  well  endowed.  Its  pupils,  once  two  or  three  hundred,  are 
not  now  contined  to  the  descendants  of  Tristram.  It  is  said  of  this  school  that 
it  cost  Sir  Isaac  an  earldom,  but  the  remark  applies  with  more  likelihood 
to  the  nautical  schools  for  the  education  of  seamen.  The  following  letter 
to  the  trustees  of  the  Nantucket  school  from  Mr.  Folger,  who  sends  me 
the  above  intended  will,  is  appended,  with  his  consent. 


Cambridgeport,  June  30,  188 1. 

Charles  G.  Coffin,  Esq.,  President  Board  of  Trustees, 
Admiral  Sir  Isaac  Cojfiris  School,  Nantucket : 

My  Dear  and  Honored  FRiEND^Some  few  years  ago,  in  looking 
over  old  records  in  the  **  Town's  Building,"  so  called,  at  Nantucket,  I  came 
across  a  candle-box  about  half  filled  with  loose  papers.  On  examination 
I  found  among  them  several  original  letters  and  memorandum-books  con- 


i 


ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


107 


[829. 

my  late 
ly  efforts 
itributed 

:ting  and 

the  Brig, 
i  advice, 
lay  make 
r  no  gout 
[ovpujber 
ur  family, 


JOFFIN. 

having,  as 
riticism  at 
lantucket. 
ndred,  are 
ichool  that 

ikelihood 
ving  letter 

sends  me 


o,  188 1. 


in  looking 
et,  I  came 
tamination 
)ooks  con- 


nected with  the  establishment  of  the  Coffin  School.  By  permission  I  took 
them  for  the  purpose  of  making  copies  tending  to  their  preservation.  I 
infer  that  they  were  saved  when  all  the  other  records  of  the  School  were 
destroyed  by  the  fire  of  1846,  conveyed  from  the  counting-room  of  the 
Secretary,  Gorham  Coffin,  Esq.,  to  his  residence,  and  at  his  death  carried 
over  to  the  Town's  Building.  But  this,  being  my  own  explanation, 
may  not  be  the  correct  one.  The  papers  consist  of  two  bot:k.s  of  ac- 
counts, showing  the  purchase  and  fitting  the  School  House  on  Fair- 
Street,  and  the  general  expenditures  from  September,  1826,  to  May, 
1835  ;  four  memorandum  books  containing  the  names  of  scholars,  male 
and  female,  commencing  with  the  first  quarter  of  the  second  year,  June, 
1828,  and  continuing  to  March,  1834,  and  sundry  documents  numbered 
by  the  Secretary,  Gorham  Coffin,  Esq.,  i  to  81 — of  which  22  were  miss- 
ing— and  there  are  9  not  numbered.  They  consist  of  original  letters 
from  Admiral  Coffin  and  his  relative,  Hector  Coffin,  to  William  Coffin, 
President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  ;  copies  of  letters  to  the  Admiral,  and 
copies  of  papers  connected  with  the  gift  by  Union  Lodge  of  F.  &  A. 
Masons,  under  certain  conditions,  of  their  Lodge  Building  standing  on 
Main  street.  These  documents  I  have  carefully  copied  into  a  record  book, 
and,  in  connection  therewith,  other  information  connected  with  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  school,  showing  some  of  the  influences  leading  thereto,  to- 
gether with  such  biographical  notices  of  Admiral  Coffin  as  have  come  under 
my  observation.  It  appears  that  on  the  loth  of  September,  1826,  Admiral 
Coffin  visited  Nantucket  ,  second  time,  after  an  interval  of  about  twenty 
years.  He  found  tiie  inhabitants  very  mucn  exercised  in  relation  to  the 
establishment  of  public  schools.  The  only  schools  of  this  nature  then  ex- 
isting were  charity  schools,  supported  by  the  Town  from  an  appropriation 
of  $1,500  per  year,  with  an  expenditure  of  about  $800  in  a  population  of 
some  8,000  persons.  The  School  Committee  of  1825  had  reported  "  that 
they  had  not  recommended  a  large  sum  of  money,  because  it  is  presumed 
that  no  individual  who  is  competent  to  support  the  education  of  his  chil- 
dren, will  at  this  period  of  embarrassment  be  induced  to  place  them  under 
the  direction  and  control  of  the  School  Committee." 

The  names  of  those  participating  in  the  appropriation  were  required  to 
be  published  by  the  Committee.  At  the  March  Town  Meeting,  1826,  the 
School  Committee  reported,  •'  that  immediately  after  their  appointment 
they  gave  public  notice  that  they  would  be  in  session  to  receive  applica- 
tions for  admission  into  the  public  schools.  They  sat  several  evenings  for 
the  purpose,  and  until  applications  had  ceased.  Having  ascertained  by 
this  cc'irse  the  number  of  children  for  which  they  had  to  provide  schools, 


■( 


io8 


THE   LIFE  OF 


they  proceeded  to  institute  schools,  and  locate  them  in  different  parts  of 
the  town  for  the  accomiuodation  of  the  inhabitants  ;  one  under  the  direction 
of  a  master,  and  four  under  the  direction  of  mistresses.  These  schools 
have  embraced,  on  an  average,  about  180  scholars.  Besides  these  five 
schools,  jirovision  has  been  made  for  a  few  scholars  in  four  private  schools, 
in  such  a  manner  that  it  has  been  advantageous  to  the  scholars  themselves, 
and  economical  to  the  town.  The  Committee  have  frequently  visited  the 
schools  in  order  to  take  cognizance  of  any  existing  difficulty,  as  well  as  to 
ascertain  the  advancement  of  the  schools  in  their  several  studies,  and  to 
this  end  have  examined  every  individual  scholar.  Thft  condition  of  very 
many  of  the  scholars,"  say  the  committee,  '*  was  indeed  deplorable  at  the 
time  they  were  received,  and  although  their  advancement  has  generally 
equalled  the  most  sanguine  expectations  of  your  committee,  yet  very  much 
remains  for  the  town  to  do,  that  the  education,  which,  in  many  instances, 
received  its  beginning  the  present  year,  may  be  continued,  till  an  object 
fraught  with  the  most  beneficial  effects  shall  be  fully  accomplished.  One 
of  the  above  female  schools  is  composed  of  colored  children,  whose  ad- 
vancement in  education  has  afforded  satisfaction  to  the  Committee,  when 
they  have  visited  the  schools.  They  have  expended  $845.94,  and  have 
drawn  $650,  and  there  is  due  to  the  treasurer  $194.94.  They  recommend 
the  like  appropriation  of  last  year,  $1,000,  with  liberty  to  hire  $500  more 
if  necessary.  And  in  conclusion,  recommend  the  t  )wn  so  far  to  recon- 
sider a  vote  of  last  year  as  to  dispense  with  publishing  the  names  of  each 
individual  who  has  participated  the  last  year  in  the  appropriation,"  In  the 
meantime  the  columns  of  the  Nantucket  Inquirer  were  teeming  with  power- 
fully-written articles,  showing  the  necessity  and  express  duty  of  the  town 
to  adopt  a  public  school  system.  The  able  and  talented  editor,  the  la- 
mented  Samuel  Haynes  Jenks,  in  sharp  and  incontrovertible  statements 
showed  that  the  schools  supported  by  the  town  were  strictly  and  only 
'*  charity  "  schools  for  the  destitute,  and  not  in  any  sense  public  schools ; 
that  although  the  Commonwealth  had  passed  laws  more  than  thirty-five 
years  previous  for  the  general  education  of  youth,  yet  no  provision  in 
accordance  had  ever  been  made  by  the  town  of  Nantucket,  and  that  no 
legal  public  school  then  existed  in  the  place. 

At  the  session  of  the  General  Court  held  in  1826  additional  laws  were 
passed  in  relation  to  public  education  and  the  establishment  of  schools  for 
this  purpose  by  the  several  towns.  At  the  same  session  an  act  was  passed, 
approved  March  2,  1826,  establishing  sessions  of  the  Supreme  Judicial 
Court  in  the  county  of  Nantucket,  and  at  its  first  session  the  inhabitants 
of  the  town  were  indicted  for  neglect  of  schools,  whereupon  notice  was 


ADMIRAL  SIR   ISAAC  COFFIN,   BART. 


109 


issued  to  the  said  inhabitants  and  the  case  continued  to  the  next  term  of 
the  Court,  on  the  first  Tuesday  of  July  following,  1827. 

At  the  height  of  this  excitement  Admiral  Coffin  visited  Nantucket,  and 
undoubtedly  his  attention  was  drawn  to  the  "  deplorable  condition  "  of 
some  of  his  young  kinsmen,  as  described  by  the  school  committee  of  the 
town,  and  he  was  induced  to  carry  into  execution  a  plan  he  had  long  had 
in  contemplation — the  establishment  of  a  school  upon  the  Lancasterian 
system,  designed  for  the  youthful  descendants  of  whatever  name,  of  Tris- 
tram Coffin,  his  ancestor,  who  first  emigrated  from  England  and  settied  in 
Saulsbury  near  Newburyport,  and  in  1661  removed  to  Nantucket  and  there 
spent  the  "  ^mainder  of  his  days.  The  Coffin  school  was  opened  on  the 
29th  day  of  May,  1827,  and  on  the  same  day  two  public  schools  by  the 
town  of  Nantucket,  which,  at  the  previous  March  meeting,  had  appropri- 
ated for  the  purpose  $2,500.  The  Nantucket  Inquirer  of  June  4th  records 
that  '*  on  Monday  last,  two  of  the  large  public  schools  recently  established 
by  a  vote  of  this  town  were  opened  for  the  admission  of  scholars.  These 
seminaries,  which  will  contain  an  aggregate  of  nearly  350  scholars,  were 
immediately  filled  with  children  above  the  age  of  nine  years.  It  is  ascer- 
tained that  about  300  younger  candidates  for  public  instruction  now  re- 
main to  be  provided  for.  The  schools  now  established  are  to  be  conducted 
on  the  improved  monitorial  plan.  The  Principal  Schools  in  this  town  are 
as  follows:  South  public  school,  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  William 
Mitchell,  containing  202  scholars.  North  Public  School,  under  the  joint 
care  of  Messrs.  Nathaniel  and  Obed  Barney,  143  scholars  at  present. 
Admiral  Sir  Isaac  Coffin's  Lancasterian  school,  conducted  by  William 
Coffin,  Jr.,  and  Miss  A.  Meach,  comprising  230  scholars."  This  noble 
institution,  founded  in  1827,  has  extended  its  benefits  not  only  to  the 
descendants  of  Tristram  Coffin,  but  to  the  children  of  Nantucket  generally 
for  a  period  of  more  than  fifty  years,  increasing  in  usefulness  with  its  years, 
and  bidding  fair  to  continue  to  an  indefinite  period  of  time.  While  disas- 
ters and  misfortunes  without  number  have  fallen  thick  and  heavy  upon  the 
old  town,  while  her  children  have  been  driven  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  to 
earn  a  livelihood,  while  her  wharves  have  fallen  in  decay,  the  grass  grown 
in  her  streets,  and  the  sound  of  labor  become  low  or  ceased  altogether,  yet 
this  grand  old  institution,  founded  in  love  and  good  will,  standing  almost 
alone,  has  flourished  and  grown  strong  amid  a  general  wreck. 

The  prophetic  words  of  the  Boston  Evening  Bulletin  on  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Coffin  School  seem  to  be  fulfilled,  and  the  lesson  therein  in- 
culcated is  worthy  our  serious  consideration  at  the  present  time  :  "  When 
it  is  recollected  that  in  the  compact  town  of  Nantucket,  comprising  a 


no         THE  LIFE  OF  ADMIRAL  SIR  ISAAC  COFFIN,  BART. 


|I4 
J  '"■ 


m^ 


m  1 


¥, 

-if' 


population  of  nearly  eight  thousand,  there  were,  two  years  since,  no  semi- 
naries  for  the  public  instruction  of  youth  ;  and  that  upon  the  establishment 
of  the  institution  in  question,  designed  for  the  benefit  of  a  numerous  class 
of  the  community,  the  town  itself,  provoked  and  ashamed,  as  it  were,  by  this 
magnanimous  example,  was  incited  to  the  erection  of  three  similar  schools, 
what  thanks  will  not  be  awarded  by  the  future  inhabitants  of  that  island ; 
what  magnificent  results  to  coming  generations  may  not  be  justly  antici- 
pated. This  is  the  way  to  insure  immortal  fame  !  This  is  the  judicious 
and  generous  mode  which  Admiral  Coffin  has  adopted  for  the  transmission 
to  after  ages  of  the  remembrance  and  the  benefi*^8  of  his  bounty,  instead  of 
vainly  providing  for  the  erection  of  marble  mon  :ments  or  bestowing  his 
wealth  for  the  propagation  of  sectarian  doctrines." 

My  connection  with  tlic  school  was  as  a  pupil  at  the  second  quarter 
in  the  second  year,  and  I  had  the  honor  of  receiving  a  first  medal  in  the 
boys*  school  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  quarter.  I  was  a  pupil  when  the 
school  was  visited  by  Admiral  Coflin  in  1829,  and  recollect  being  play- 
fully taken  upon  his  knee  at  visits  he  made  at  my  grandfather's  at  that 
time.  I  w.\s  also  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  several  years,  where 
we  had  always  the  pleasure  oi  your  company  and  the  benefit  of  your  ad- 
vice and  co-operation,  which  ^  \  have  so  freely  and  generously  given 
through  the  entire  existence  of  t'  j  school,  having  been  one  of  the  original 
Board  of  Trustees  appointed  by  the  Admiral,  and  for  many  years  the  only 
surviving  member  thus  appointed,  and  distant  is  the  day,  all  must  join  in 
wishing,  when  your  connection  therewith  shall  cease.  The  great  obliga- 
tion I  feel  to  the  school  of  my  early  days,  through  which  I  stumbled  with 
weak  and  faltering  steps,  but  to  which  distance  lends  a  sweet  enchantment, 
has  led  me  to  ask  the  acceptance  by  the  Trustees  of  this  book  of  records 
which  I  take  the  liberty  to  forward  to  you  with  the  original  papers  before 
mentioned.  I  also  ask  their  acceptance  of  one  of  the  original  medals, 
struck  off  by  direction  of  Admiral  Coffin  in  memory  of  Tristram  Coffin, 
the  first  of  his  race  that  settled  in  America,  and  copies  of  which  he  sent 
to  the  members  of  the  first  Board  of  Trustees.  This  medal  was  given  to 
nie  by  the  late  Paul  Mitchell,  Esq.,  an  acquaintance  and  near  relative  to 
the  great  Admiral. 

With  my  best  wishes  for  the  continued  prosperity  of  the  school,  and  as- 
surance of  my  high  regard  and  esteem  to  yourself  and  the  other  Trustees 
I  am,  very  respectfully, 

Your  friend  and  ob't  servant, 

George  H.  Folger. 


r. 

',  no  semi- 
iblishment 
;rous  class 
;re,  by  this 
\r  schools, 
lat  island ; 
3tly  antici- 
!  judicious 
msmission 
instead  of 
towing  his 

id  quarter 
rdal  in  the 
when  the 
eing  play- 
r's  at  that 
;ars,  where 
f  your  ad- 
usly  given 
he  original 
rs  the  only 
ust  join  in 
eat  obliga- 
nbled  with 
:hantnient, 
of  records 
»ers  before 
al  medals, 
am  Coffin, 
ch  he  sent 
s  given  to 
relative  to 

lol,  and  as- 
r  Trustees 


FOLGER. 


if! 


Wii 


GLEANINGS. 


r-  i 


i 


rA> 


JOH] 
TUR 

Hav 

Nan 
Papi 
Tris 

NUM 

Obii 
List 

CON( 


CONTENTS    OF    GLEANINGS. 


PAGE. 

John         .... 

"5 

TURBOT      .... 

"7 

Haverhill 

ii8 

Nantucket  Deeds        .  ' 

"9 

Papers  connected  with  Government  of  Nantucket  ....        134 

Tristram's  Deeds  to  his  Children 

"9 

Number  of  Tristram's  Descendants 

*'*•"•        13s 
Obituary  of  Admiral  Sir  Isaac  Coffin  . 

130 

List  of  Vessels  to  which  Admiral  Coffin  was  attached        .        .         ,39 

Conclusion    .... 

140 


GLEANINGS. 


"5 


"JOHN." 


p.  57. 

As  our  memoir  was  on  its  way  to  the  corner  bookstore,  in  search  of  a 
reader,  a  friend,  whose  boyhood  had  been  spent  in  Brighton,  recalled  to 
remembrance  a  character  too  intimately  associated  with  the  admiral  to 
pass  unnoticed.  His  Yes,  Sir  Isaac ;  No,  Sir  Isaac,  recurring  at  every 
sentence,  as  he  received  his  master's  orders,  still  reechoes  on  the  ear. 
Thoroughly  English  in  appearance,  speech,  and  dress,  his  spatterdashes, 
corduroys,  jockey  coat,  and  cap  with  a  gold  band  somewhat  tarnished, 
worn  as  a  badge  of  his  master's  rank  in  the  British  navy,  attracted  atten- 
tion the  more  that  our  people  then  scrupulously  refrained  from  any  such 
pretensions.  His  manners,  warm  and  magnetic  with  his  equals,  defer- 
ential to  those  he  regarded  as  his  superiors,  were  rather  domineering  over 
the  stable-boys  who  served  under  him.  If,  like  a  true  Saxon,  he  used  or 
dropped  his  aspirates  somewhat  erroneously,  '  was,  when  at  ease, 
loquacious  and  sensible,  and  left  the  impression  that  he  was  thorough- 
bred for  his  peculiar  walk. 

Exuberant  in  health,  his  well-knit  frame  solid  and  muscular,  half- 
sailor,  half-groom,  he  had  the  credit  of  being  besides  an  accomplished 
personal  attendant,  either  as  valet,  nurse,  or  butler,  as  the  occasion 
served.  In  earlier  days,  in  his  capacity  as  master's  man,  then  deemed 
indispensable  to  all  personages  of  means,  military  rank,  or  social  posi- 
tion, he  had  attended  Sir  Isaac  about  the  world,  afloat  or  ashore.  On 
an  occasion  like  that  of  the  Nore,  when  the  admiral  one  stormy  night 
plunged  into  the  wintry  billows  to  save  a  drowning  sailor,  John,  at  the 
imminent  risk  of  his  own  life,  had  rescued  his  master  from  the  sharks. 
Such  a  service  the  admiral  was  not  likely  to  forget. 

However  extended  his  social  circle,  numerous  his  acquaintances  and 
friends,  and  frequent  a  gueSt  under  many  hospitable  roofs,  ever  ready  to 
receive  him  with  cordial  welcome.  Sir  Isaac,  without  domestic  ties  or 
other  home  than  his  cabin,  had  often  to  lead  a  lonely  life.  He  had  few 
dependants  in  whom  to  take  an  interest,  for  whose  welfare  and  happi- 
ness he  felt  under  obligation  to  care.     One  in  whom  he  placed  implicit 


\\W'' 


Ii6 


GLEANINGS. 


Kr 


trust,  who  in  so  many  ways  contributed  to  his  own  comfort,  intelligent 
and  respectful,  yet  companionable,  and  who  had  rendered  him  such  ex- 
cellent service  on  the  occasion  to  which  we  have  alluded,  occupied  a 
high  place  in  his  regard  to  their  mutual  advantage. 

His  special  charge,  when,  at  this  suggestion  of  my  friend,  the  substan- 
tial presence  of  John  stalked  sturdily  back  into  my  own  consciousness, 
was  the  stable  at  Brighton,  near  the  hall  on  the  hill-top,  then  standing 
in  lonely  dignity  against  the  sky  but  long  since  removed,  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Agricultural  Society.  In  its  spacious  stables,  befitting  their  an- 
tecedents, the  victors  of  Epsom  and  Ascot  and  of  other  well-known 
courses,  imported  by  Sir  Isaac  to  improve  our  breeds,  reposed  upon  their 
laurels,  or  transmitted  them  to  other  generations.  In  buildings  round 
about  frolicked  their  progeny  of  frisky  and  comely  foals.  John,  well-versed 
in  horse-flesh,  an  admirable  veterinary  surgeon,  watched  with  parental 
solicitude  over  these  precious  animals  committed  to  his  care,  ambitious  to 
bring  them  up  in  the  way  they  should  go. 

The  Society  in  whose  keeping  the  horses  had  been  placed,  and  under 
whose  sanction  and  auspices  the  benevolent  purposes  of  the  admiral  were 
carried  out,  then  reigned  in  solitary  supremacy.  The  numerous  county 
organizations  were  not  in  existence.  Its  annual  fairs  attracted  crowds 
from  all  over  New  England.  Its  members  were  from  among  the  most 
eminent  of  the  State.  Still  remembered  well  the  day  when  Sir  Isaac,  who 
was  then  residing  not  far  away,  at  Belmont,  then  my  uncle's,  where  we 
also  had  our  dwelling,  attended  as  their  guest.  His  presence  there,  and 
that  of  these  fine  steeds  conflded  by  him  to  their  care,  was  an  event,  and 
John,  as  master-of-horse,  in  his  glory. 

Naturally  generous,  and  ever  thoughtful  of  the  wants  of  whoever  had 
any  claim  upon  him,  the  admiral  purchased  a  farm  of  many  acres  near 
the  stables  at  Brighton,  and  gave  it  to  John.  There,  with  his  buxom  wife 
and  healthy  children,  still  clinging  to  the  ways  and  customs  of  England, 
he  lived  on  long  past  maturity,  if  not  to  a  great  old  age.  His  chief  pride 
as  long  as  they  remained  here,  for  they  eventually  went  back  to  England, 
were  the  horses,  and  with  them  he  shared  the  regard  of  his  neighbors, 
many  of  whom  had  profited  by  the  opportunity  and  possessed  them- 
selves of  scions  of  such  illustrious  sires.  Two  splendid  colts  of  Barefoot's 
were  killed  by  lightning  when  pastured  on  an  island  in  the  harbor. 
Morgan  and  other  breeds,  better  adapted  to  hard  work  and  the  intensities 
of  heat  and  cold,  superseded  Barefoot's ;  but  doubtless  still  may  be  traced 
on  the  famous  Brighton  road  near  by,  his  fleetness  and  elegance  of 
form  grafted  on  more  sturdy  stock. 


GLEANINGS. 


117 


'  Our  climate,  with  such  extremes  of  temperature  often  abrupt,  is  better 
suited  for  wheel  or  runners  than  for  the  saddle.  Population  crowding 
along  shore  has  well-nigh  exterminated  the  fox  and  deer,  and  the  chase 
without  useful  purpose  lost  much  of  its  fascination.  Even  racing  is  be- 
coming confined  to  trotting  in  harness.  But  when  Sir  Isaac  sent  over 
Barefoot  and  Serab  to  improve  our  stock,  New  England,  like  the  Old,  had 
not  lost  its  taste  for  running.  There  were  other  champions  of  the  turf  to 
be  remembered  besides  Winslow  Blue.  Foxes,  too,  abounded  up  to  the 
suburbs  of  our  larger  municipalities.  Well-mounted  clubs  of  the  best 
and  wealthiest,  for  their  extermination,  in  traditional  splendor  of  apparel, 
leaped  the  stiff  stone  walls  that  bounded  the  fields,  as  much  for  their 
own  enjoyment  as  for  the  benefit  of  the  farmers.  Even  at  this  day,  at 
Newport  and  Beverly,  men  and  women  gather  in  large  numbers  to  the 
meet,  with  well-trained  hunters  and  dogs  of  high  degree,  though  Reynard 
rarely  puts  in  an  appearance,  and  a  bag  of  aniseseed  in  a  cart  proves  a 
sorry  substitute. 

Our  late  civil  war  quickened  the  taste  for  equitation.  Spacious  parks 
gird  round  our  cities  or  compose  large  portions  of  their  extended  areas. 
Attractive  drives,  well-shaded,  by  the  sea  or  through  the  forest  about 
our  summer  resorts,  tend  to  promote  a  taste  once  more  common  abroad 
than  here.  What  we  still  need  are  better  horses  for  the  saddle,  from 
stocks  with  hereditary  aptitudes,  well-trained  till  training  becomes  second 
nature.  The  best  will  then  become  more  abundant,  and  be  less  costly. 
Other  public  benefactors  will  introduce  from  abroad,  or  other  parts  of  our 
own  land,  choice  breeds  for  the  purpose,  acclimatize  them  here,  teach  them 
their  paces,  and  to  apprehend  instinctively  the  intent  of  the  rider. 
Then  the  Boston  boy,  who  did  so  much  half  a  century  ago  in  this  same 
direction,  will  be  appreciated  and  held  in  grateful  remembrance  by  all, 
who  estimate  aright  the  healthy  exhilaration  of  speeding  through  the  air 
on  a  perfect  mount. 


ii 


;*;■ 


TURBOT. 


p.  57. 
It  is  a  curious  fact  that  deep-water  fish,  soles  and  turbot,  change 
gradually  through  their  generations,  —  change  not  only  their  accustomed 
habits  and  habitats,  but  their  form  and  color,  to  accommodate  themselves 
to  their  new  conditions  and  perils.  On  the  different  sides  of  a  broad 
channel,  of  the  broad  ocean  between  Europe  and  America,  the  mouth  opens 


it!! 


■L 


>M 


Ir" 


ii8 


GLEANINGS. 


sometimes  on  one  side  and  sometimes  on  the  other,  according  to  the  slope 
of  the  shore.  Our  American  turbot,  if  not  equal  in  flavor  or  delicacy  to 
its  English  congener,  is  very  similar  in  general  appearance,  but  with 
sufficient  modifications  of  form  not  to  be  mistaken  for  it.  Sir  Isaac  had 
been  so  constantly  from  early  childhood  in  constant  proximity  to  the  sea 
in  climates  so  various,  that  he  was  conversant  with  all  the  innumerable 
tribes  of  the  ocean,  and,  realizing  how  much  better  the  English  turbot 
was  than  ours  he  brought  over,  on  one  of  his  voyages,  in  crails  both 
turbot  and  sole,  in  the  hope  they  might  in  time  become  acclimatized 
and  multiply  in  our  waters.  Our  own  fishermen  say  that  the  English 
turbot  has  occasionally,  though  rarely,  been  caught  here  retaining  in 
large  measure  the  delicacy  and  other  characteristics  of  the  race.  Possibly 
with  time  they  will  gradually,  by  selection  of  breed,  and  for  self-preserva- 
tion, conform  more  to  our  type,  yet  be  a  better  fish.  Our  chicken  hali- 
but, and  the  larger  variety,  good  and  abundant,  leave,  however,  little 
more  to  be  wished.  ' 


HAVERHILL. 

"  It  appears  that  Tristram  did  not  affect  a  permanent  settlement  at 
Salisbury,  but  removed  the  same  year  to  the  new  settlement  of  Pen- 
tucket,  soon  afterward  called  Haverhill.  This  settlement  was  com- 
menced in  1640,  Christopher  Hussey  being  among  the  first  settlers,  but 
no  deed  from  the  Indians  was  obtained  until  1642,  when  the  name  of 
Tristram  Coffyn  appears  as  one  of  the  witnesses  thereto.  It  was  first 
recorded  in  the  county  records  of  Norfolk  (lib.  2,  p.  209)  ;  and,  in  1832, 
the  original  deed  was  said  to  be  in  the  possession  of  Charles  White,  Esq. 
As  it  is  the  first  appearance  of  the  name  of  Tristram  Coffyn  upon  any 
document  in  America,  I  make  a  copy  of  it  from  the  '  History  of  Haver- 
hill,' by  B.  L.  Mirick.  The  marks  made  by  the  Indian  sachems  were 
representations  of  the  bow  and  arrow  :  — 

'  Know  all  men  by  these  presents  that  we,  Passaquo  and  Saggahew, 
with  the  consent  of  Passaconaway,  have  sold  unto  the  inhabitants  of 
Pentucket  all  the  lands  we  have  in  Pentucket,  that  is,  eight  miles  in 
length  from  the  little  river  in  Pentucket  westward  ;  six  miles  in  length 
from  the  aforesaid  river  northward,  and  six  miles  in  length  from  the 
aforesaid  river  eastward,  with  the  island  and  the  river ;  that  the  island 
stand  in  as  far  in  length  as  the  land  lies  by  as  formerly  expressed,  that  is, 
fourteen  miles  in  length.     And  we,  the  said  Passaquo  and  Saggahew, 


GLEANINGS. 


119 


le  slope 
icacy  to 
)ut  with 
aac  had 
the  sea 
merable 
li  turbot 
Ills  both 
imatized 
English 
lining  in 
Possibly 
preserva- 
ken  hali- 
ver,  little 


lement  at 

t  of  Pen- 

vas  com- 

tlers,  but 

name  of 

was  first 

in  1832, 

lite,  Esq. 

upon  any 

if  Haver- 

ims  were 


1£ 


with  the  consent  of  Passaconnaway,  have  sold  unto  the  said  inhabitants 
all  the  right  that  we  or  any  of  us  have  in  the  said  ground  and  island  and 
river ;  and  we  warrant  it  against  all  or  any  other  Indians  whatsoever 
unto  the  said  inhabitants  of  Pentucket,  and  to  their  heirs  and  assigns 
forever.     Dated  the  fifteenth  day  of  November,  A.  D.  1642. 

Witness  our  hands  and  seals  to  this  bargain  of  sale  the  day  and  year 
above  written.  We,  the  said  Passaquo  &  Saggahew,  have  received  in 
hand,  for  and  in  consideration  of  the  same,  three  pounds  and  ten 
shillings. 

In  the  presence  of  us 

John  Ward.  The  mark  of 

Robert  Clements,  PASAqyos  X  [Seal]. 

Tristram  Coffyn, 
Hugh  Sherratt, 
William  White, 


The  sign  of  (i) 

o 

Thomas  Davis. 


The  mark  of 
Saggahew^,  X  [Seal].' 


Tristram  Cofllyn  settled  in  Haverhill  near  Robert  Clement,  and  tradi- 
tion says  he  was  the  first  person  who  ploughed  land  in  that  town,  con- 
structing his  own  plough.  The  following  year  he  settled  at  the  Rocks, 
so  called.  He  resided  in  Haverhill  several  years,  when  he  removed  to 
Newbury  (1648-9) ,  and  thence  to  Salisbury  ( 1654-5) '  where  he  organized 
the  company  for  the  purchase  and  settlement  of  Nantucket." 


NANTUCKET. 

Ch,  IV.,  p.  ai. 

"  These  documents,  printed  thirty  years  ago  from  the  records  of  New 
York  at  Albany,  are  not  accessible  to  many  who  may  read  this  volume. 
Some  of  them  are  of  value  as  showing  by  what  conveyances  Nantucket 
and  Martha's- Vineyard  vested  in  the  colonists.  Others  have  peculiar 
interest  at  this  time  that  systems  of  government  for  dependencies,  or  for 
associated  nationalities,  are  under  discussion.  The  plan  evidently  origi- 
nated on  the  islands.  What  part  of  it  was  the  work  of  Mayhew,  Coffin, 
or  Macy,  does  not  appear.  They  probably  all  participated,  and  were 
alike  competent  to  adapt  sound  political  methods  and  principles  to  the 
circumstances  and  exigencies  with  which  they  had  to  deal. 


^•: 


I 


hi 


ISO 


CLE  .NINGS. 


Deeds  from  yames  Fforrett  to  Thomas  Mayhew  and  Son, 
[Deeds,  i,  71  ;  iii,  64,  and  iii,  76,  Secretary's  Office,  Albany.] 

These  presents  do  witness.  That  I,  James  Fforrett,  gentleman,  who 
was  sent  over  into  these  parts  of  America,  by  the  Honorable  Lord 
Sterling,  with  a  commission  for  the  ordering  and  disposing  of  all  the 
islands  that  lie  between  Cape  Cod  and  Hudson  river,  and  have  hitherto 
continued  his  agent  without  any  contradiction,  do  hereby  grant  unto 
Thomas  Mayhew  at  Watertown,  merchant,  and  to  Thomas  Mayhew 
his  son,  free  liberty  and  full  power  to  them,  their  heirs  and  assigns,  to 
plant  and  inhabit  upon  Nantucket,  and  two  small  islands  adjacent,  and 
to  enjoy  the  said  islands  to  them,  their  heirs  and  assigns  forever.  Pro- 
vided, that  Thomas  Mayhew,  and  Thomas  Mayhew  his  son,  or  either 
of  them  or  their  assigns,  do  render  and  pay  yearly  unto  the  Honorable 
the  Lord  Sterling,  his  heirs  and  assigns,  such  an  acknowledgment  as 
shall  be  thought  fit  by  John  Winthrop,  Esq.,  the  elder,  or  any  two 
magistrates  in  the  Massachusetts  Bay,  being  chosen  for  that  end  and  pur- 
pose by  the  Hon.  the  Lord  Sterling,  or  his  deputy ;  and  by  the  said 
Thomas  Mayhew  and  Thomas  Mayhew  his  son,  or  their  assigns. 

It  is  agreed,  that  the  government  that  the  said  Thomas  Mayhew,  and 
Thomas  Mayiiew  his  son  and  their  assigns  shall  set  up,  shall  be  such 
as  is  now  established  in  the  Massachusetts  aforesaid,  and  that  the  said 
Thomas  Mayhew,  and  Thomas  Mayhew  his  son,  and  their  assigns  shall 
have  as  much  privilege  touching  their  planting,  inhabiting,  and  enjoying 
of  all  and  every  part  of  the  premises,  as  by  the  patent  to  the  patentees  of 
the  Massachusetts  aforesaid,  and  their  associates.  In  witness  hereof,  I, 
the  said  James  Fforrett,  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  seal  this  13th 
day  of  October,  1 64 1. 

James  Fforrett.  (Seal) 
Witnesses:  Philip  Watson,  Clerk, 

Robert  Corane, 

Nicholas  Davison, 

Richard  Stillman. 


A  Deed  made  to  Mr,  Mayhew  by  Richard  Vines. 
[Deeds,  iii,  66,  Secretary's  Office.] 
I,  Richard  Vines,  of  Saco,  gentleman,  steward-general  for  Sir  Ferdi- 
nand Georges,  Knight,  Lord  Proprietor  of  the  province  of  main  land 
and  the  islands  of  Caparrock  and  Nantican,  do,  by  these  presents,  give 


I 


GLEANINGS. 


121 


full  power  and  authority  unto  Thomas  Mayhew,  gentleman,  his  heirs 
and  associates,  to  plant  and  inhabit  upon  the  islands  of  Caparrock,  alias 
Martha's  Vineyard,  with  all  rights  and  privileges  thei  .'urito  belonging, 
to  enjoy  the  premises  unto  himself,  his  heirs,  and  associates  forever, 
yielding  and  paying  unto  the  said  Sir  Ferdinand  Gorges,  his  heirs  and 
assigns,  forever  annually,  as  two  gentlemen,  indifferently  by  each  of  them 
chosen,  shall  judge  to  be  meet  by  way  of  acknowledgment. 
Given  under  my  hand  this  25th  day  of  October,  1641. 

Richard  Vines. 
Witness : 
Thomas  Page, 
Robert  Long. 


Deed  of  Nantucket  to  ten  Purchasers. 
[Deeds,  iii,  56,  Secretary's  Office.] 

Recorded  for  Mr.  Coffin  and  Mr.  Macy  aforesaid  the  day  and  year 
aforesaid. 

Be  it  known  unto  all  men  by  these  presents,  that  I,  Thomas  Mayhew, 
of  Martha's  Vineyard,  merchant,  do  hereby  acknowledge  that  I  have 
sold  unto  Tristram  Coffin,  Thomas  Macy,  Christopher  Hussey,  Richard 
Swayne,  Thomas  Bernard,  Peter  Coffin,  Stephen  Greenleafe,  John 
Swayne,  and  William  Pike,  that  right  and  interest  I  have  in  the  land  of 
Nantucket,  by  patent ;  the  which  right  I  bought  of  James  Fforrett, 
gentleman,  and  steward  to  the  Lord  Ste.  ling,  and  of  Richard  Vines, 
sometimes  of  Saco,  gentleman,  steward-general  unto  Sir  Gorges, 
knight,  as  by  conveyances,  under  their  hands  and  seals,  do  appear,  for 
them  the  aforesaid  to  enjoy,  and  their  heirs  and  assigns  forever,  with  all 
the  privileges  thereunto  belonging,  for  and  in  consideration  of  the  sum  of 
thirty  pounds  of  current  pay,  unto  whomsoever  I,  the  said  Thomas  May- 
hew, my  heirs  or  assigns,  shall  appoint.  And  also  two  beaver  hats,  one- 
for  myself  and  one  for  my  wife.  And  further,  this  is  to  declare  that  I, 
the  said  Thomas  Mayhew,  have  reserved  to  myself  that  neck  upon  Nan- 
tucket called  Masquetuck,  or  that  neck  of  land  called  Nashayte,  the  neck 
(but  one)  northerly  of  Masquetuck,  the  aforesaid  sale  in  anywise  not- 
withstanding. And  further,  I,  the  said  Thomas  Mayhew,  am  to  bear  my 
part  of  the  charge  of  the  said  purchase  abovenamed,  and  to  hold  one- 
twentieth  part  of  all  lands  purchased  already,  or  shall  be  hereafter  pur- 
chased, upon  the  said  island  by  the  aforesaid  purchasers  or  heirs  and 


I "i 


I  as 


GLEANINGS. 


I*»? 


!*  , 


assigns  forever.  Briefly,  it  is  thus :  That  I  really  sold  all  my  patent  to 
the  aforesaid  nine  men,  and  they  are  to  pay  me,  or  whomsoever  I  shall 
appoint  them,  the  sum  of  thirty  pounds  in  good  merchantable  pay  in  the 
Massachusetts,  under  which  government  they  now  inhabit,  and  two 
beaver  hats,  and  I  am  to  bear  a  twentieth  part  of  the  charge  of  the  pur- 
chase, and  to  have  a  twentieth  part  of  all  lands  and  privileges ;  and  to 
have  which  of  the  necks  aforesaid  that  I  will  myself,  paying  for  it ;  only 
the  purchasers  are  to  pay  what  the  sachem  is  to  have  for  Masquetuck, 
although  I  have  the  other  neck. 

And  in  witness  hereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  seal  this 
second  day  of  July,  sixteen  hundred  and  fifty-nine  (1650). 

Per  me,  Thomas  Mayhew. 
Witness : 

John  Smyth, 
Edward  Scale. 


Pi 


Deed  of  Tuckanucket  Island. 
[Deeds,  iii,  57,  Secretary's  Office.] 

Recorded  for  Mr.  Coffin  and  Mr.  Macy  aforesaid,  the  day  and  year 
afore  written. 

The  tenth  day  of  October,  one  thousand  six  hundred  fifty-nine  :  These 
presents  witness,  that  I,  Thomas  Mayhew,  of  Martin's  Vineyard,  mer- 
chant, do  give,  grant,  bargain,  and  sell  all  my  right  and  interest  in 
Tuckanuck  Island,  alias  Tuckanucket,  which  I  have  had  or  ought  to 
have,  by  virtue  of  patent  right  purchased  of  the  Lord  Sterling's  agent, 
and  of  Mr.  Richard  Vines,  agent  unto  Sir  Ferdinand  Gorges,  Knight, 
unto  Tristram  Coffin,  Sr.,  Peter  Coffin,  Tristram  Coffin,  Jr.,  and  James 
•  Coffin,  to  them  and  their  heirs  forever,  for  and  in  consideration  of  the 
just  sum  of  six  pounds  in  hand  paid,  and  by  me,  Thomas  Mayhew, 
received  in  full  satisfaction  of  the  aforesaid  patent  right  of  the  aforesaid 
island. 

And  in  witness  hereof  I  have  set  my  hand  and  seal. 

Per  me,  Thomas  Mayhew. 
Witness  hereunto : 

Roger  Wheeler, 
George  Wheeler. 


GLEANINGS. 


123 


f  patent  to 
vrer  I  shall 
pay  in  the 
,  and  two 
)f  the  pur- 
;es ;  and  to 
or  it ;  only 
[asquetuck, 

d  seal  this 

Iayhew. 


Deed  of  Wanockmamack. 

This  witnesseth  that  I,  Wanochmamack,  chief  sachem  of  Nantucket, 
hath  sold  unto  Mr.  Tristram  Coffin  and  Thomas  Macy,  their  heirs  and 
assigns,  that  whole  neck  of  land  called  by  the  Indians,  Pacummohquah, 
being  at  the  east  end  of  Nantucket,  for  and  in  consideration  of  five 
pounds,  to  be  paid  to  me  in  English  goods  or  otherwise  to  my  content  by 
the  said  Tristram  Coffin  aforesaid,  at  convenient  time  as  shall  be  de- 
manded.   Witness  my  hand  or  mark  this  22d  of  June,  1662. 

Wanockmamak. 

Witness  hereto : 

Peter  Folgbr  &  Wawinnesit  whose  English  name  is  Amos. 


Indian  Deed  of  Nantucket. 

[Deeds,  iii,  54,  Secretary's  Office.] 

Recorded  for  Mr.  Tristram  Coffin  and  Mr.  Thomas  Macy,  the  29th  of 
June,  1671,  aforesaid. 

These  presents  witness,  that  I,  Wanackmamack,  head  sachem  of  the 
island  of  Nantucket,  have  bargained  and  sold,  and  do  by  these  presents 
bargain  and  sell,  unto  Tristram  Coffin,  Thomas  Macy,  Richard  Swayne, 
Thomas  Bernard,  John  Swayne,  Mr.  Thomas  Mayhew,  Edward  Star- 
buck,  Peter  Coffin,  James  Coffin,  Stephen  Greenleafe,  Tristram  Coffin, 
Jr.,  Thomas  Coleman,  Robert  Bernard,  Christopher  Hussey,  Robert 
Pike,  John  Smythe,  and  John  Bishop,  these  islands  of  Nantucket, 
namely,  all  the  west  end  of  the  aforesaid  island,  unto  the  pond  commonly 
called  Waquittaquay,  and  from  the  head  of  that  pond  to  the  north  side 
of  the  island  Manamoy ;  bounded  by  a  path  from  the  head  of  the  pond 
aforesaid  to  Manamoy ;  as  also  a  neck  at  the  east  end  of  the  island  called 
Poquomock,  with  the  property  thereof,  and  all  the  royalties,  privileges, 
and  immunities  thereto  belonging,  or  whatsoever  right  I,  the  aforesaid 
Wanackmamack  have,  or  have  had  in  the  same ;  That  is,  all  the  lands 
aforementioned,  and  likewise  the  winter  feed  of  the  whole  island  from  the 
end  of  an  Indian  harvest  until  planting  time,  or  the  first  of  May,  from 
year  to  year  forever ;  as  likewise  liberty  to  make  use  of  wood  and  timber 
on  all  parts  of  the  island;  and  likewise  half  of  the  meadows  and  marshes 
on  all  parts  of  the  island,  without  or  beside  the  aforesaid  tracts  of  land 
purchased ;  and  likewise  the  use  of  the  other  half  of  the  meadows  and 
marshes  on  all  parts  of  the  island,  without  or  beside  the  aforesaid  tracts 


I', 


124 


GLEANINGS. 


of  land  purchased ;  and  likewise  the  use  of  the  other  half  of  the  meadows 
and  marshes,  as  long  as  the  aforesaid  English,  their  heirs  and  assigns,  live 
on  the  island ;  and  likewise  I,  the  aforesaid  Wanackmamack,  do  sell  unto 
the  English  aforementioned,  ihe  propriety  of  the  rest  of  the  island  belong- 
ing unto  me,  for,  and  in  consideration  of  forty  pounds  already  received 
by  me,  or  other  by  my  consent  or  order.  To  have  and  to  hold,  the  afore- 
said tracts  of  land,  with  the  propriety,  royalties,  immunities,  privileges 
and  all  appurtenances  thereunto  belonging  to  them,  the  aforesaid  pur- 
chasers, their  heirs  and  assigns  forever. 

In  witness  whereof,  I,  the  aforesaid  Wanackmamack,  have  hereunto 
set  my  hand  and  seal,  the  day  and  year  above  written. 

The  sign  of  Wanackmamack. 

Signed,  sealed,  and  delivered  in  the  presence  of 
Peter  Foulger, 
Eleazbr  Foulger, 
Dorcas  Starbuck. 


Indian  Receipt  for  Land  —  Receipt  of  Wanackmamack. 
[Nantucket  Records,  Old  Book,  page  27.] 
Received  of  Tristram  Coffin,  of  Nantucket,  the  just  sum  of  five  pounds 
which  is  part  of  the  seven  pounds  that  was  unpaid  of  the  twenty  pound 
purchase  of  land  that  was  purchased  of  Wanackmamack  and  Neckanoose, 
that  is  to  say,  from  Monomoy  to  Waquettaquage  pond,  Nanahumack 
neck,  and  all  from  Wesco  westward  to  the  west  end  of  Nantucket,  I  say, 
received  by  me,  Wanackmamak,  of  Tristram  Coffin,  five  pounds  sterling, 
the  1 8th  of  the  eleventh  month,  1671. 


Witness  hereunto : 

Richard  Gardner, 
Elezer  Folgsr. 


The  X  mark  of 
Wanackmamack. 


Two  Letters  or  Certificates  from  the  Inhabitants  of  Nantucket, 
[Deeds,  iii,  58,  Secretary's  Office,  Albany.] 

Recorded  for  the  aforesaid  Mr.  Coffin  and  Mr.  Macy,  two  lives  on  certi- 
ficates, from  the  inhabitants  of  Nantucket,  as  follows,  viz. :  — 

Whereas,  the  Honorable  Colonel  Lovelace,  Governor  of  I\ew  Y^rk, 
gave  forth  his  summons  for  the  inhabitants  of  the  isle  of  Nantuc^e'  '-> 


I 


GLEANINGS. 


125 


MAMACK. 


make  their  appearance  before  His  Honor  at  New  York,  either  in  their 
own  person  or  by  their  agent,  to  show  their  claims  in  respect  to  their 
standing  or  claim  of  interest  on  the  aforesaid  island.  Now  we,  whose 
names  are  underwritten,  having  intrusted  our  father,  I'ristram  Coffin,  to 
make  answer  for  us,  we  do  empower  our  father,  Tristram  Coffin,  to  act 
and  do  for  us  with  the  honored  Governor  Lovelaco,  so  far  as  is  just  and 
reasonable,  with  regard  to  our  interest  on  the  isle  of  Nantucket  and 
Tuckanuckett. 

Witness  our  hands  the  second  day  of  the  fourth  month,  sixteen  hundred 
and  seventy-one  (1671). 

James  Coffin, 
^  Nathaniel  Starbuck, 

John  Coffin, 
Stephen  Coffin. 


This  is  to  signify  that  the  inhabitants  of  Nantucket  have  chosen  Mr. 
Thomas  Macy  their  agent  to  treat  with  the  Honorable  Colonel  Lovelace 
concerning  the  affairs  of  the  island,  to  act  for  them  in  their  behalf  and 
stead,  and  in  all  considerations  to  do  what  is  necessary  to  be  done  in 
reference  to  the  premises,  as  if  they  themselves  were  personally  present. 
Witness  their  hands,  dated  June  5,  1671. 

Edward  Starbuck, 
Peter  Folger, 
John  Rolfe. 

The  inhabitants  aforesaid  do  also,  in  the  name  of  the  rest,  desire  Mr. 
Tristram  Coffin  to  assist  their  aforesaid  agent  what  he  can  in  the  matter 
or  business  concerning  the  Island  Nantucket. 


ives  on  certi- 


Proposals  to  the  Governor  from  the  Inhabitants  of  Nantucket  about 

Settling  that  Government. 

[Deeds,  iii,  59,  Secretary's  Office.] 

Imprimis.  We  humbly  propose  liberty  for  the  inhabitants  to  choose 
annually  a  man  or  men  to  be  chief  in  the  government,  and  chosen  or 
appointed  by  His  Honor  to  stand  in  place,  constantly  invested  with  power 
of  confirmation,  by  oath  or  engagement,  or  otherwise  as  His  Honor  shall 
^npoint,  one  to  be  chief  in  the  court  and  to  have  magistratial  power  at 
i-'  i:imes  with  regard  to  the  peace,  and  other  necessary  considerations. 


126 


GLEANINGS. 


Second.  We  take  for  granted  that  the  laws  of  England  are  standard 
of  government,  so  far  as  we  know  them,  and  are  suitable  to  our  condi- 
tion ;  yet  we  humbly  propose  that  the  inhabitants  may  have  power  to 
constitute  such  law  or  orders  as  are  necessary  and  suitable  to  our  condi- 
tion not  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  England. 

Third.  In  point  of  carrying  on  the  government  from  time  to  time,  we 
are  willing  to  join  with  our  neighbor  island,  the  Vineyard,  to  keep 
together  one  court  every  year,  one  year  at  our  island,  the  next  with  them, 
and  power  at  home  to  end  all  cases  not  exceeding  twenty  pounds ;  and 
in  all  cases  liberty  of  appeal  to  the  general  court  in  all  actions  above 
forty  pounds.  And  in  all  actions  amounting  to  the  value  of  one  hundred 
pounds,  liberty  of  appeal  to  His  Highness,  his  court  at  the  city  of  New 
York,  and  in  capital  cases,  or  such  matters  as  concern  life,  limb,  or 
banishment.     All  such  cases  to  be  tried  at  New  York. 

Fourth.  And  feeling  the  Indians  are  numerous  among  us,  we  propose 
that  our  government  may  extend  to  them,  and  power  to  summon  them 
to  our  courts  with  respect  to  trespass,  debt,  and  other  miscarriages,  and 
to  try  and  judge  them  according  to  laws,  when  published  amongst  them. 

And,  lastly,  some  military  power  committed  to  us  respecting  our 
defence,  either  in  respect  of  Indians  or  strangers  invading,  etc. 


l'!' 
Pji 


The  Answer  to  the  Nantucket  Pt  f^sals. 
[Deeds,  iii,  60,  Secretary's  Office.] 

At  a  council  held  at  Fort  James,  in  New  York,  the  28th  day  of  June, 
in  the  twenty-third  year  of  His  Majesty's  reign.  Anno  Domini  1671. 

In  answer  to  the  proposals  delivered  in  by  Mr.  Coffin  and  Mr.  Macy 
on  the  behalf  of  themselves  and  the  rest  of  the  inhabitants  upon  the 
Island  Nantucket,  the  governor  and  council  do  give  their  resolutions  as 
follows,  viz. :  — 

Imprimis.  As  to  the  first  branch  in  their  proposals  it  is  thought  fit 
that  the  inhabitants  do  annually  recommend  two  persons  to  the  governor, 
out  of  which  he  will  nominate  one  to  be  the  chief  magistrate  upon  that 
island,  and  the  island  of  Tuckanuckett,  near  adjacent,  for  the  year  ensu- 
ing, who  shall,  by  commission,  be  invested  with  power  accordingly. 

That  the  time  when  such  a  magistrate  shall  enter  into  his  employment 
after  the  expiration  of  this  first  year  shall  commence  upon  the  13th  day 
of  October,  being  His  Royal  Highnesa's  birthday,  to  continue  for  the  space 


GLEANINGS. 


127 


;  standard 

Dur  condi- 

povver  to 

our  condi- 

o  time,  we 
1,  to  keep 
with  them, 
inids ;  and 
tions  above 
ne  hundred 
ity  of  New 
e,  limb,  or 

we  propose 
nmon  them 
rriages,  and 
ongst  them, 
pecting  our 
tc. 


lay  of  June, 
li  1671. 
Id  Mr.  Macy 
upon  the 
^solutions  as 

thought  fit 

he  governor, 

Ite  upon  that 

le  year  ensu- 

]>rdingly. 
employment 

khe  13th  day 
Ifor  the  space 


of  one  whole  year,  and  that  they  return  the  names  of  the  two  persons 
they  shall  recommend  three  months  before  that  time  to  the  governor. 

That  the  inhabitants  have  power  by  a  major  vote  annually  to  elect  and 
choose  their  inferior  officers,  both  civil  and  military,  that  is  to  say,  the 
assistants,  constables,  and  other  inferior  officers,  for  the  civil  government, 
and  such  inferior  officers  for  the  military  as  shall  be  thought  needful. 

Second.  The  second  proposal  is  allowed  of:  That  they  shall  have 
liberty  to  make  peculiar  laws  and  orders  at  their  General  Court  for  the 
well  government  of  the  inhabitants,  the  which  shall  be  in  force  amongst 
them  for  one  whole  year,  during  which  time,  if  no  inconvenience  do 
appear  therein,  they  are  to  transmit  the  said  laws  or  orders  to  the 
governor  for  his  confirmation.  However,  they  are  (as  near  as  may  be) 
to  conform  themselves  to  the  laws  of  England,  and  to  be  very  cautious 
they  do  not  act  in  any  way  repugnant  to  them. 

Third.  To  the  third  it  is  granted  that  they  join  with  their  neighbors 
of  Martha's  Vineyard  in  keeping  a  General  Court  between  them  once  a 
year,  the  said  court  to  be  held  one  year  in  one  island,  and  the  next  year 
in  the  other,  where  the  chief  magistrate  in  each  island  where  the  court 
shall  be  held  is  to  preside,  and  to  sit  in  their  respective  courts  as  presi- 
dent, but,  withal,  that  upon  all  occasions  he  counsel  and  advise  with  the 
chief  magistrate  of  th'2  other  island. 

That  the  said  General  Court  shall  consist  of  the  two  chief  magistrates 
of  both  islands,  and  '.he  four  assistants,  where  the  president  shall  have  a 
casting  voice  ;  for  the  time  of  their  meeting,  that  it  be  left  to  themselves 
to  agree  upon  the  most  convenient  season  of  the  year. 

That  in  their  private  courts  at  home,  which  are  to  be  held  by  the  chief 
magistrate  and  two  assistants,  where  the  chief  magistrate  shall  have  but  a 
single  voice,  they  shall  have  power  finally  to  determine  and  decide  all 
cases  not  exceeding  the  value  of  five  pounds  without  appeal ;  but  in  any 
sum  above  that  value  they  have  liberty  of  appeal  to  their  General  Court, 
who  may  determine  absolutely  any  case  under  fifty  pounds  without 
appeal ;  but  if  it  shall  exceed  that  sum  the  party  aggrieved  may  have 
recourse,  by  way  of  appeal,  to  the  General  Court  of  Assizes,  held  in  New 
York. 

And  as  to  criminal  cases,  that  they  have  power  both  at  their  private 
courts  at  home,  as  well  as  at  the  General  Court,  to  inflict  punishment  on 
offenders  so  far  as  whipping,  stocks,  and  pillorinj,  or  other  public 
shame.  But  if  the  crime  happen  to  be  of  a  higher  nature,  where  life, 
limb,  or  banishment  are  concerned,  that  such  matters  be  transmitted  to 
tlie  General  Court  of  Assizes  likewise. 


128 


GLEANINGS. 


Fourth.  In  answer  to  the  fourth,  it  is  left  to  themselves  to  order  those 
affairs  about  the  Indians,  and  to  act  therein,  according  to  their  best  dis- 
cretions, so  far  as  life  is  not  concerned :  wherein  they  are  also  to  have 
recourse  to  New  York,  but  that  they  be  careful  to  use  such  moderation 
amongst  them  that  they  be  not  exasperated,  but  by  degrees  may  be 
brought  to  be  conformable  to  the  laws ;  to  which  end  they  are  to  nomi- 
nate and  appoint  constables  amongst  them  who  may  have  staves  with  the 
King's  arms  upon  them,  the  better  to  keep  their  people  in  awe  and  good 
order,  as  is  practised  with  good  success  amongst  the  Indians  at  the  east 
end  of  Long  Island. 

To  the  last,  that  they  return  a  list  of  the  inhabitants,  as  also  the  names 
of  two  persons  amongst  them  ;  out  of  whom  the  governor  will  appoint 
one  to  be  their  chief  military  officer,  that  they  may  be  in  the  better  ca- 
pacity to  defend  themselves  against  their  enemies,  whether  Indians  or 
others. 


■^■\i' 


Jv 


II 


1^ 

5  V 


Nantucket  Affairs. 
[Deeds,  iii,  85,  Secretary's  Office.] 

Additional  instructions  and  directions  for  the  government  of  the  Island 
Nantucket,  sent  by  Mr.  Richard  and  Captain  Jno.  Gardner,  April  the 
i8th,  1673. 

Imprimis,  that  in  regard  that  the  town  upon  the  island  of  Nantucket 
18  not  known  by  any  peculiar  or  particular  name,  it  shall  from  henceforth 
be  called  and  distinguished  in  all  deeds,  records,  and  writings  by  the 
name  of  the  town  of  Sherborne,  upon  the  Island  Nantucket. 

That  all  ancient  and  obsolete  deeds,  grants,  writings,  or  conveyances 
of  lands  upon  the  said  island,  shall  be  esteemed  of  no  force  or  validity, 
but  the  records  of  every  one's  claim  or  interest  shall  bear  date  from  the 
first  divulging  of  the  patent  granted  to  the  inhabitants  by  authority  of  His 
Royal  Highness,  and  so  forward,  but  not  before  the  date  thereof. 

That  the  time  of  election  of  the  chief  magistrate,  and  other  civil 
officers,  be  and  continue  according  to  the  directions  and  instructions 
already  given  ;  but  in  regard  of  the  distance  of  the  place  and  the  uncer- 
tainty of  the  conveyance  betwixt  that  and  this  place,  the  chief  magistrate 
and  all  the  civil  officers  shall  continue  in  their  employments  until  the 
return  of  the  governor's  choice  and  approbation  of  a  new  magistrate  be 
sent  unto  them,  which  is  to  be  with  the  first  convenient  opportunity. 

That  in  case  of  mortality,  if  it  shall  please  God  the  chief  magistrate 
shall  die  before  the  expiration  of  his  employment,  the  assistants  for  the 


GLEANINGS. 


129 


der  those 
•  best  dis- 
3  to  have 
loderation 
;s  may  be 
!  to  nomi- 
!S  with  the 
:  and  good 
at  the  east 

the  names 
ill  appoint 
e  better  ca- 

Indians  or 


)f  the  Island 
ir,  April  the 

Nantucket 
benceforth 
tings  by  the 


n 


conveyances 
or  validity, 

ite  from  the 
lority  of  His 

[reof. 

other  civil 

instructions 

id  the  uiicer- 

ef  magistrate 

jnts  until  the 

lagistrate  be 

[ortunity. 
.f  magistrate 

ftants  for  the 


time  being  shall  manage  and  carry  on  the  afTairs  of  the  public  until  the 
time  of  the  new  election,  and  the  governor's  return  and  approbation  of  a 
new  magistrate  in  his  stead. 

That  the  chief  military  officer  shall  continue  in  his  employment  during 
the  governor's  pleasure,  and  that  he  have  power  to  appoint  such  persons 
for  inferior  officers  as  he  shall  judge  most  fit  and  capable. 

That  in  case  of  the  death  of  the  chief  military  officer  during  the 
time  of  his  employment  that  then  the  inhabitants  do  forthwith  make 
choice  of  two  persons,  a  id  return  their  names  unto  the  governor,  who 
will  appoint  one  of  them  to  be  the  officer  in  his  stead. 

That  in  regard  to  the  General  Court  to  be  held  in  the  Island  Nantucket 
or  Martha's  Vineyard  is  but  once  in  the  year,  where  all  causes  or  actions 
are  triable  without  appeal  to  the  sum  of  fifty  pounds,  liberty  be  granted 
to  try  all  actions  of  debt  or  trespass  at  their  ordinary  courts  to  the  value 
often  pounds  without  appeal,  unless  upon  occasion  of  error  in  the  pro- 
ceedings there,  because  of  complaint  from  the  ordinary  court  imto  the 
General  Court,  or  from  the  General  Court  to  the  Court  of  Assizes. 

That  what  is  granted  in  the  general  patent  to  the  inhabitants,  free- 
holders of  the  Island  Nantucket,  is  to  be  understood,  unto  them  alone  who 
live  upon  the  place  and  make  improvement  thereof,  or  such  others  who 
having  pretences  of  interest  shall  come  to  inhabit  there. 

Given  under  my  hand  at  Fort  James,  in  New  York,  the  day  and  year 
afore  written  ;  and  in  the  twenty-fifth  year  of  His  Majesty's  reign. 


Soon  after  the  marriage  of  Mary  Coffin,  the  youngest  daughter  ot 
Tristram,  with  Nathaniel  Starbuck,  the  old  gentleman  concluded  to 
make  his  son-in-law  a  landed  proprietor  ;  and,  with  as  much  care  for  the 
contingencies  of  the  future  as  kind  parents  exercise  in  the  present  age, 
and  with  equal  nicety  in  the  choice  of  language  as  may  be  found  in 
modem  conveyances,  executed  the  following  deed  to  his  daughter  and 
her  husband.  It  will  be  seen  that  it  was  made  some  years  before  it  was 
acknowledged,  and  acknowledged  some  years  before  it  was  recorded :  — 

Tristram  conveys  to  daughter^  Mary  Starbuck,,  and  her  husband,, 
Nathaniel,,  one-half  of  all  estates. 
[Nantucket  Records,  ist  Book,  Page  97.] 
Know  all  men  by  these  presents,  that  I,  Tristram  Coffin,  of  Nan- 
tucket, do  for  divers  good  considerations,  as  also  in  regard  of  my  fatherly 


ii 


130 


GLEANINGS. 


i 


Mi  *♦ 


m^ 


^?-! 


affections,  do  give  unto  my  daughter,  Mary  Starbuck,  the  one-half  of  my 
accommodation  of  my  purchase,  on  Nantucket  Island,  namely,  the  half 
of  my  tenth  part  which  I  bought  with  the  other  nine  first  purchaser: 
of  Mr.  Thomas  Mayhew,  in  patent  right,  and  of  the  Sachems  Indians 
right,  as  by  their  grant  in  the  deed  will  at  large  appear :  I  do  as  afore- 
said give  and  grant  unto  my  daughter,  Mary  Starbuck,  all  the  one-half 
of  my  accommodation  of  patent  right,  and  all  my  right  of  the  half  of  all 
lands,   meadows,   marshes,  commons,  timber,   wood,   and    all   appur- 
tenances thereunto  belonging,  as  fully  as  myself  or  any  of  the  other 
twenty  part  shares  have  or  ought  to  have,  in  manner  and  form  follow- 
ing :  the  one-half  to  her  own  and  her  husband's  disposal,  namely,  her 
husband,  Nathaniel  Starbuck,  to  them  and  their  heirs  and  assigns,  for- 
ever, the  other  half  to  my  aforesaid  daughter,  Mary   Starbuck,   and 
Nathaniel  Starbuck,  her  husband,  during  their  lives,  and  when  they  die, 
then  it  shall  be  for  the  use  of  my  daughter,  Mary  Starbuck's  child,  or 
children,  to  him,  her,  or  them,  and  their  heirs,   forever;   but   if  my 
daughter,  Mary  Starbuck,  have  no  child  or  children  living  when  she 
dieth,  then  it  shall  be  in  the  power  of  her  husband,  Nathaniel  Starbuck, 
to  dispose  of  all  the  aforesaid  lands  and  accommodations,  with  all  appur- 
tenances, as  he  shall  judge  most  meet.     In  witness  whereof,  I,  the  said 
Tristram  Coffin,  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  seal,  this  14th  fourth 
month,  1664. 

Tristram  Coffyn. 
[Signed,  sealed,  and  delivered  in  the  presence  of  — 

Thomas  Macy, 

Mary  Swain,  • 

Sarah  Macy. 

This  deed  was  acknowledged   before   me,   Thomas    Mayhew,   upon 
the  island  of  Nantucket,  this  15th  day  of  January,  1677  ;  I  say  before  me, 

Thomas  Mayhkw,  Mag. 


July  26,  1 736.  —  Then  received  the  original  of  this  above  written 
deed,  and  by  the  desire  of  same  concerned,  perfected  the  record  above 
by  making  the  sign  of  the  seal.     Attest : 

Elezer  Folger,  Regr. 

While  Tristram  was  generally  reputed  to  be  quite  wealthy  in  goods 
and    lands,    owning,    together  with  his  sons,  at  one  time  about  one- 


ml 


GLEANINGS. 


131 


fourth  part  of  the  island  of  Nantucket  and  the  whole  of  Tuckernuck, 
he  did  not  die  rich.  He  fully  realized  that  he  could  not  take  his  riches 
with  him  to  another  world,  and  that  the  amount  of  land  he  would  re- 
quire at  his  death  would  be  very  small.  He  made  no  will,  but  disposed 
of  much  of  his  land  while  he  lived,  by  deeds,  the  consideiation  always 
being  his  '  regard  and  natural  affection.'  Most  of  the  remainder  of  his 
estate  he  deeded  to  his  two  youngest  sons,  John  and  Stephen,  and  they 
were  to  take  after  the  decease  of  both  himself  and  his  wife.  To  each  of 
his  grandchildren  he  gave  ten  acres  of  land  upon  the  island  of  Tucker- 
nuck, or  to  such  of  them  as  would  plant  it. 


Tristram  to  Stephen^  his  youngest  son.,  conveying  half  his  accommo- 
dations^ excepting  his  new  house  on  the  hill. 

[Nantucket  Records,  Old  Book,  Page  63.] 

Know  all  men  by  these  presents  that  I,  Tristram  Coffin,  of  Nan- 
tucket, Senior,  do  give,  grant,  bargain,  and  sell  unto  my  son,  Stephen 
Coffin,  the  one-half  of  my  land  at  Cappam,  alias  Northam,  within  the 
township  of  Sherborn,  situated  upon  Nantucket  island,  that  is  to  say,  the 
one-half  of  my  house  lot,  with  half  my  accommodations  and  privileges 
and  appurtenances  whatsoever  thereunto  belonging,  all  buildings,  except 
that  is  to  say,  my  new  dwelling-house  upon  the  hill,  and  my  old  dwell- 
ing-house under  the  hill,  by  the  herb-garden ;  now,  for  and  in  consid- 
eration of  the  aforesaid  premises,  my  son,  Stephen  Coffin,  shall  always 
from  time  to  time  do  the  best  he  can  in  managing  of  my  other  half  of 
my  lands  and  accommodation  during  mine  and  my  wife's  life,  and  that  he 
be  helpful  to  me  and  his  mother  in  our  old  age  and  sickness,  what  he 
can  :  now  I,  Tristram  Coffin,  abovesaid,  do  for  this  and  for  dr/ers  other 
considerations  me  moving  thereunto,  do,  as  abovesaid,  give,  grant, 
bargain,  and  sell  unto  my  son,  Stephen  Coffin,  his  heirs  and  assigns,  all 
my  one-half  of  my  house  lot,  with  all  appurtenances  thereunto  belonging : 
To  have  and  to  hold  forever,  to  him,  the  said  Stephen  Coffin,  his  heirs 
and  assigns,  executors  and  administrators,  upon  the  conditions  aforesaid  : 
and  my  son,  Stephen  Coffin,  shall  always,  from  time  to  time,  have  free 
liberty  to  go  to  and  fro  to  the  new  barn  that  he  hath  lately  built  with 
horse,  foot,  and  cart,  as  he  hath  occasion,  and  to  have  the  free  use  of 
half  an  acre  of  land  adjoining  the  said  barn  on  the  east  side,  and  south 


'  i'» 


132 


GLEANINGS. 


and  north  side.  In  witness  whereof  I  have  set  my  hand  and  seal,  the 
fifteenth  of  the  eleventh  month,  one  thousand  : '  ''  ndred  and  seventy- 
six.        .  ;STRAM  COFFVN. 


Acknowledged  before  me  the  deed  w 
June,  1677. 


.iitten  this  15th  day  of 
AS  Mayhew, 

Magistrate. 


liJ 


i 


Agreement  between  Stephen  Coffin  and  his  father,  as  to  rights  in  barn 

to  Tristram  and  his  wife  Dionis. 

[Nantucket  Records,  zd  Book,  Page  12.] 

Articles  of  agreement  between  Tristram  Coffin,  Senior,  and  Stephen 
Coffin,  son  of  the  aforesaid  Tristram  Coffin,  both  of  the  town  of  Sher- 
born,  on  the  island  of  Nantucket,  as  follows :  imprimis,  we  do  jointly 
and  severally  agree  that  whereas  there  is  a  barn  built  at  Coppamet  by 
us,  this  present  year,  one  thousand  six  hundred  seventy-seven,  that  the 
aforesaid  Stephen  Coffin  had  been  at  the  most  part  of  the  charge,  there- 
fore I,  Tristram  Coffin,  do  covenant  and  agree  with  my  son,  Stephen 
Coffin,  that  he  shall  have  the  aforesaid  barn  and  lean-tos  for  himself,  and 
his  heirs  and  assigns,  forever :  to  have  and  to  hold  and  quietly  to  enjoy, 
in  consideration  whereof,  as  also  in  consideration  of  the  receiving  of 
two  thousand  feet  of  boards,  and  some  timber,  and  some  labor  of 
several  persons  in  framing  the  works,  I,  Stephen  Coffin,  do  consent  and 
agree  that  my  father,  Tristram  Coffin,  and  my  mother,  Dionis  Coffin, 
shall  have  the  use  of  the  one-half  of  the  aforesaid  barn,  coming  in  and 
going  to  the  barn  and  lean-tos  without  any  kind  of  hindrance,  let,  or 
molestation,  by,  from,  or  under  me,  Stephen  Coffin,  my  heirs,  executors, 
administrators,  or  assigns ;  and  if  my  father  and  mother  aforesaid  do 
happen  to  die  in  some  short  time,  as  namely,  within  seven  years  after 
the  date  hereof,  then  I,  Stephen  Coffin,  do  engage  to  pay  the  sum  often 
pounds  to  my  father  or  mother's  order,  within  one  year  after  their  de- 
cease, if  they  or  either  of  them  order  me  so  to  do.  Witness  our  hands 
and  seals  to  this  agreement,  the  i8th  of  July,  1677. 

Signed,  sealed,  and  delivered  in  presence  of 
us,  who  are  witness  to  these  present  within 
written  articles  of  agreement. 

Martha  Hussey.    Thomas  Macy. 
Nathaniel  Barnard. 
This  deed  was  acknowledged  this  24th  day  of  July,  before  me, 

Thos.  Macy,  Mag. 


Tristram  Coffyn. 
Stephen  Coffin. 


GLEANINGS. 


133 


Tristram  grants  his  new  dwelling-house  to  his  son  John. 

[Nantucket  Records,  2d  Book,  Page  19.] 

To  all  Christian  people  to  whom  these  presents  shall  come,  Tristram 
Coffin,  Senior,  in  the  town  of  Sherborn,  on  the  Island  of  Nantucket, 
seiideth  greeting,  and  declareth  that,  in  regard  to  my  natural  affection 
unto  my  son,  John  Coffin,  now  of  Sherbon,  as  also  for  divers  other  good 
and  lawful  considerations,  I,  the  above  said  Tristram  Coffin,  do  freely 
give  unto  my  son,  John  Coffin,  and  to  his  heirs,  forever,  my  new  dwell- 
ing-house, with  all  other  houses  adjoining  unto  it ;  and  also  the  whole 
half  share  of  land  and  accommodation  and  appurtenances  thereunto  be- 
longing, namely,  my  part  of  the  house  lot  and  all  commonage  of  timber, 
wood,  pasturages,  and  all  meadows,  marshes,  and  creek  grass  thereunto 
belonging ;  and,  I,  the  aforesaid  Tristram  Coffin,  do  freely  and  firmly  by 
these  give,  grant,  and  confirm  the  above  said  dwelling-house,  with  all 
privileges  and  appurtenances  as  aforenamed,  unto  my  son,  John  Coffin, 
and  to  his  heirs :  to  have  and  to  hold  forever,  immediately  after  the  decease 
of  me,  the  aforesaid  Tristram  Coffin,  Senior,  and  my  now  wife,  Dionis 
Coffin,  free  and  discharged  against  all  persons  or  person  laying  any  claim 
unto  the  above  said  house  or  any  appurtenances  thereunto  belonging,  in, 
by,  or  under  me ;  and  in  witness  hereof  I,  Tristram  Coffin,  Senior,  have 
set  my  hand  and  seal  the  third  day  of  December,  one  thousand  six  hun- 
dren  and  seventy-eight. 

Tristram  Coffyn,  Senior. 
Witness  hereunto : 

James  Coffin, 

Stephen  Coffin. 

This  was  acknowledged  by  Mr.  Tristram  Coffin  to  be  his  act  and  deed 
the  3d  10  m.,  1678. 

A  true  copy :  William  Worth,  Assistant. 

William  Worth,  Recorder. 


Tristram  grants  ten  acres  of  land  to  each  of  his  grandchildren  to 

plant. 
[Nantucket  Records,  2d  Book,  Page  17.] 
All   men   shall   know  by  these  presents  that  I,   Tristram  Coffin,  of 
Sherborn,  on  the  island  of  Nantucket,  with  or  in  regard  of  my  natural 


I 


134 


GLEANINGS. 


% 


aflection  unto  my  grandchildren,  I  do  freely  give  unto  every  one  of 
them  ten  acres  of  land  to  plant  or  sow  English  grain  on,  or  any  other 
improvement,  for  oats,  or  what  is  fit  for  food  for  men.  And  I,  the  ahove 
said  Tristram  Coffin,  senior,  do  freely  and  firmly  give  unto  all  and  every 
one  of  my  grandchildren  that  are  now  living,  or  that  shall  be  horn  here- 
after, each  of  them  ten  acres  of  land  upon  the  island  of  Tuckernuck : 
To  have  and  to  hold,  to  plant  Indian  corn,  or  to  sow  or  plant  any  other 
grain  on,  and  if  they  or  any  of  them  shall  sow  their  land  with  English 
hay-seed  they  shall  have  liberty  to  keep  four  sheep  upon  every  acre 
during  the  lifetime  of  any  one  that  shall  so  improve  the  above-named 
land  or  any  part  of  it.  In  witness  hereof,  I,  Tristram  Coffin,  have  set 
my  hand  and  seal  3d  loth,  1678. 


Signed,  sealed,  and  delivered  in  presence  of 
us  the  within  written  deed. 
James  Coffin,    John  Coffin, 
Stephen  Coffin. 


'  Tristram  Coffyn. 


This  deed  was  acknowledged  by  Mr.  Tristram  Coffin,  to  be  his  act 
and  deed. before  me,  William  Worth,  assistant,  3  m  loth  1678. 

This  is  a  true  copy  of  the  original  by  me.  — William  Worth,  Regr. 


By  these  deeds  above  quoted  we  shall  learn  that  Trystram  CoflTyn  had 
a  new  dwelling-house,  which  stood  on  a  hill,  and  another  dwelling- 
house  which  stood  under  the  hill.  Also,  that  he  last  lived  in  his  new 
house  on  the  hill.  With  this  information,  and  by  tracing  the  title  of  the 
new  house  on  the  hill,  which  was  conveyed  to  John  Coffin,  and  from 
John  to  his  son  Peter,  and  from  Peter  to  his  son  Robert,  the  said 
Robert's  estate  being  defined  within  the  recollection  of  the  present 
generation,  I  think  we  can  know  the  exact  spot  where  Tristram  Coffyn 
last  resided,  and  from  which  place  his  mortal  put  on  immortality.  His 
wife,  who  survived  him,  doubtless  breathed  her  last  in  the  same  mansion, 
as  she  was  to  have  a  life-right  carved  out  of  the  estate  which  subsequently 
became  vested  in  John  and  Stephen  Coffin.  The  Court  of  Sessions,  at 
that  time  exercising  probate  jurisdiction,  allowed  to  Mrs.  Dionis  Coftyn 
the  use  of  the  entire  estate  of  her  husband  during  her  life,  the  three  sons, 
James,  John,  and  Stephen,  as  administrators,  so  recommending." 


ery  one  of 
•  any  other 
,  the  above 
1  and  every 

born  here- 
Lickernnck : 
t  any  other 
ith  English 

every  acre 
)ove-named 
1,  have  set 


GLEANINGS.  ,-- 

NOTE. 

**•  's- 

Tr.8tram  Coffyn  left  a  posterity  of  seven  children,  sixty  grandchildren, 
and  a  number  of  ereat-ffrandchiWrpn      «:»  ^^^*.    •*.    •  "•«", 

now      Tn   ,^,,  fif       u  Tu        ?  "'*  posterity  18  more  numerous 

now.  In  1722  there  had  been  born  1,138  descendants,  of  whom  87, 
were  then  l.vmg.  In  ,728,  six  years  later,  there  had  been  added  to  the 
number  born  444,  making  the  total  number  born  1,582;  and  of  that 
It':  ^'^^^.t-";"--^-     This  computation,  by  Ste^ph^n  Greenleaf 

I      wfTi    ^^'T  '"'^^  '"^'•^  *'^^"  °"«  hundred  and  fifty  year 
ago     What  the  number  now  is  will  never  be  definitely  ascertained. 
Iheir  name  is  legion.  "^ 


Coffyn. 


)  be  his  act 
578. 

RTH,  Regr. 


'n 


Coffyn  had 
r  dwelling- 
in  his  new 
title  of  the 
I,  and  from 
rt,  the  said 
the  present 
ram  Coffyn 
tality.  His 
ne  mansion, 
ubsequently 
Sessions,  at 
onis  Coft'yn 
I  three  sons, 
ing." 


iiir 


I3« 


CLEANINGS. 


OBITUARY    OF    ADMIRAL  SIR   ISAAC    COFFIN,   BART. 


m 


m 


I- 


[  "  Gentleman's  Magazine,"  1840,  vol,  xiil.,  p.  J05.] 

July  23.  At  Cheltenham,  aged  80,  Sir  Isaac  Coffin,  Bart.  G.C.B., 
Admiral  of  the  Red. 

This  gallant  old  officer  was  the  fourth  and  youngest  son  of  Nathaniel 
Coffin,  Esq.,  Cashier  of  the  Customs  in  the  port  of  Boston,  America, 
by  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Mr.  Henry  Barnes,  merchant,  of  the  same 
place. 

He  entered  the  Royal  Navy  in  May,  i773»  under  the  auspices  of  Rear- 
Admiral  John  Montagu,  who  confided  him  to  the  care  of  the  late  Lieut. 
Wm.  Hunter,  of  Greenwich  Hospital,  at  that  period  commanding  the 
brig  "Gasp^e"on  the  American  station.  "Of  all  the  )'oung  men," 
said  Lieut.  Hunter,  '♦  I  ever  had  the  care  of,  none  answered  my  expec- 
tations equal  to  Isaac  Coffin.  .  .  .  Never  did  I  know  a  young  man 
acquire  so  much  nautical  knowledge  in  so  short  a  time." 

Mr.  Coffin  afterwards  served  as  midshipman  in  the  "  Captain,"  "  King- 
fisher," "Fowey,"  and  "Diligent,"  on  the  Halifax  station;  and  from 
the  last  named  was  removed  into  the  "  Romney  "  of  50  guns,  bearing 
the  flag  of  his  patron  at  Newfoundland.  In  the  summer  of  1778  he 
obtained  a  lieutenancy,  and  the  command  of  the  "Placentia"  cutter; 
and  the  following  spring  he  served  as  a  volunteer  on  board  the  "  Sybil" 
frigate,  commanded  by  Captain  Pasley,  and  was  soon  after  appointed  to 
the  command  of  le  "  Pinson  "  armed  sliip ;  in  which  he  had  the  mis- 
fortune to  be  wrecked  on  the  coast  of  Labrador,  but  on  a  court-martial 
was  acquitted  of  all  blame. 

Having  visited  England  he  was,  in  November,  1779,  appointed  to  the 
*'  Adamant,"  about  to  be  launched  at  Liverpool ;  and  in  the  following 
year  he  escorted  in  her  the  outward-bound  trade  to  New  York.  He  was 
next  appointed  to  the  "  London  98,"  the  flag-ship  of  Rear-Admiral 
Graves,  on  the  coast  of  America ;  and  from  her  he  removed  into  the 
"  Royal  Oak,"  a  third-rate,  under  Vice-Admiral  Arb»ithnot,  to  whom 
he  acted  as  Signal-Lieutenant  in  the  action  off  Cape  Henry,  March  16, 
1781. 

In  July  following  he  was  made  Commander,  and  on  his  arrival  at  New 


GLEANINGS. 


137 


DART. 


t.  G.C.B., 

'  Nathaniel 
\,  America, 
if  the  same 

:e8  of  Rear- 
late  Lieut, 
landing  the 
Dung  men," 
I  my  expec- 
young  man 

n,"  "  King- 

i;  and  from 

jns,  bearing 

of  1778  he 

tia"  cutter; 

he  "Sybil" 

appointed  to 

ad  the  mis- 

;ourt-martial 

ointed  to  the 
le  following 
•k.  He  was 
[ear-Admiral 
jved  into  the 
•t,  to  whom 
',  March  16, 

[•rival  at  New 


York  joined  the  "  Avenger"  sloop.  He  was  afterwards  received  as  a 
volunteer,  by  Sir  Samuel  Hood,  on  board  the  "  Barfleur  98,"  in  which 
he  shared  in  much  active  service.  Having  subsequently  rejoined  his 
sloop,  he  was  appointed  Captain  of  the  "  Shrewsbury  72,"  at  Jamaica, 
and  confirmed  in  that  rank  June  13,  1782.  In  the  following  December 
he  exchanged  to  the  "  Hydra  20,"  in  which  he  returned  to  England, 
and  was  put  out  of  commission. 

After  spending  some  time  in  France  he  was,  in  1786,  appointed  to 
the  "  Thisbe "  frigate,  and  ordered  to  take  Lord  Dorchester  and  his 
family  to  Quebec. 

In  the  course  of  1 788,  being  irritated  by  some  treatment  experienced 
from  the  Admiralty,  Captain  Coffin  took  the  extraordinary  step  of  pro- 
ceeding to  Flanders,  where  he  entered  into  the  service  of  the  Brabant 
patriots ;  but  the  event  which  shortly  ensued,  of  the  conduct  of  Lord 
Howe  and  his  colleagues  at  the  Board  being  declared  illegal  by  the 
twelve  judges,  decided  his  return  to  the  service  of  his  King  and  country  ; 
and  at  the  Spanish  armament  in  1790  he  was  appointed  to  the  "  Alli- 
gator "  of  28  guns.  At  that  period,  when  lying  at  the  Nore,  during  a 
strong  wind,  a  man  fell  overboard,  and  Captain  Coffin,  impelled  by  his 
generous  spirit,  immediately  le;  ted  after  him.  He  succeeded  in  rescu- 
ing a  fellow-being  from  death ;  but  his  exertions  produced  a  severe 
rupture,  which  frequently  afterwards  reminded  him  of  this  act  of 
humanity. 

In  the  spring  of  1791  our  officer,  having  previously  been  to  Cork, 
where  he  received  the  flag  of  Admiral  Cosby,  was  once  more  ordered 
to  America,  from  whence  he  returned  with  Lord  Dorchester  and  his 
family  in  the  ensuing  autumn.  The  ''  Alligator  "  was  soon  after  paid 
off  at  Deptford. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  war  with  the  French  republic  Captain 
Coffin,  who  had  in  the  interim  visited  Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Russia, 
obtained  the  command  of  the  "Melampus"  frigate,  in  which  he  was 
employed  on  Channel  service  until  the  close  of  1794,  when  one  night, 
by  exerting  himself  too  violently,  he  became  ruptured  on  both  sides, 
which  obliged  him  to  quit  his  ship,  and  for  some  months  he  was  literally 
a  cripple.  On  his  recovery  he  went  to  Leith,  being  appointed  to  the 
recruiting  service  at  that  port;  and  in  October,  1795,  he  proceeded  to 
Corsica,  where  he  served  as  Resident  Commissioner  until  the  evacua- 
tion of  that  island,  Oct.  15,  1796.  From  thence  he  removed  to  Elba, 
and  subsequently  to  Lisbon,  where  he  continued  for  two  years,  actively 
employed  as  the  head  of  the  naval  establishment  of  that  place. 


138 


GLEANINGS. 


*.£ 


i 


Towards  the  latter  end  of  1798,  when  Minorca  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  English,  Commissioner  Coffin  was  appointed  to  the  superintendence 
of  the  arsenn'  at  Port  Mahon ;  and  after  the  lapse  of  a  few  months 
returned  to  E.i  .^land  on  his  way  to  Nova  Scotia,  whither  he  proceeded 
in  the  "  Venus  "  frigate. 

Our  officer  continued  to  perform  the  arduous  duties  of  a  Resident 
Commissioner  of  the  Navy,  first  at  Halifax,  and  subsequently  at 
Sheerness,  until  April,  1804,  when  he  was  advanced  to  the  rank  of  Rear- 
Admiral,  and  soon  after  hoisted  his  flag  on  board  the  "  Gladiator," 
being  appointed  to  superintend  the  harbor  duty  at  Portsmouth.  On 
the  19th  of  May,  1804,  he  was  created  a  Baronet  as  a  reward  for  his 
unremitting  zeal  and  persevering  efforts  for  the  good  of  the  public 
service. 

Sir  Isaac  Coffin  hauled  down  his  flag  on  being  promoted  to  the 
rank  of  Vice-Admiral,  April  28,  1808.  He  beca'  ^e  full  Admiral 
June  4,    1814. 

At  the  general  election  of  1818  he  was  returned  to  Parliament  for  the 
borough  of  Ilchester,  for  which  he  sat  until  the  dissolution  in  1826.  In 
Parliament  he  constantly  paid  much  attention  to  naval  matters,  and  not 
unfrequently  in  a  style  of  facetiousness  that  relieved  the  subject  of  its  dry 
technicality.  His  charity  was  extensive  ;  and  within  a  few  weeks  of  his 
death  he  remitted  an  additional  and  liberal  donation  to  the  Royal  Naval 
Charity,  "  for  fear,"  as  he  humorously  expressed  himself,  "  he  should 
slip  his  wind  and  forget  all  about  it." 

Sir  Isaac  Coffin  married,  March,  181 1,  Elizabeth  Browne,  only  child 
of  W.  Greenly,  Esq.,  of  Titley  Court,  Herefordshire.  She  died  not 
long  before  her  aged  partner,  on  the  27th  January,  1839,  having  had  no 
issue.  Previously  to  his  marriage  Sir  Isaac  obtained  the  royal  permis- 
sion to  take  the  name  and  arms  of  Greenly,  in  addition  to  his  own,  but 
he  rL'lInquisiied  that  name  in  March,  1813. 

He  was  possessed  of  considerable  estates  in  the  Magdalene  islands,  in 
the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence.  He  had  crossed  the  Atlantic  on  service  or 
pleasure  no  less  than  thirty  times. 


If 


?nyr 


GLEANINGS. 


139 


Gasp^e. 

Captain. 

Kingfisher. 

Fowey. 

Diligent. 

Romney  frigate. 

Placentia  cutter. 

Sybil  frigate. 

Pinson. 

Adamant. 

London. 


Vessels  to  -which   Coffin  was  attached. 

Royal  Oak. 

Avenger. 

Pocahontas. 

Barfleur. 

Shrewsbury. 

Hydra. 

Tbisbe. 

Alligator. 

Melampus, 

Venus. 


)ted   to  the 
ill  Admiral 


:  islands,  in 
1  sei'vice  or 


Well-known  Officers  in  the  Nazy,  friends  of  Coffin. 

Hallowell. 


Sir  John  Montague. 

Sir  George  Montague 

Graves. 

Arbuthnot. 

Hood. 

Rodney. 

Linsee. 


Cochrane. 
Drake. 
William  IV. 
Pasley. 
Hunter. 


i 


FT 


r 
I 


lia. 


140 


GLEANINGS. 


CONCLUSION. 


m^ 


The  preface  of  a  book  usually  contains  its  last  words  to  the  reader. 
Our  own  has  long  since  been  struck  off,  and  it  still  remains  to  account 
for  some  lack  of  arrangement  too  glaring  to  escape  unobserved,  for 
which,  if  explained,  some  allowance  may  be  made.  This  sketch  of  my 
subject  had  long  been  in  manuscript,  much  more  minute  in  detail,  when 
invited  to  condense  it  into  a  discourse.  In  order  to  bring  it  within  the 
specified  limit  of  an  hour  for  delivery,  much  that  had  been  prepared 
was  omitted.  When  printed  for  the  January  Record  the  twelve  pages 
originally  allotted  were  extended  to  nearly  as  many  again.  It  was 
impossible,  even  within  these  limits,  to  embrace  all  that  might  be  useful 
or  interesting  for  the  descendants  of  Tristram  to  know,  or  for  the 
many  besides  v.ho,  for  other  reasons,  should  find  it  instructive.  It 
seemed  better  that  it  should  contain  too  much  than  too  little,  enough  to 
make  the  rest  understood. 

Besides,  its  value  depended  upon  finding  a  place  upon  the  shelf  as  a 
volume,  where  it  could  be  easily  consulted,  not  among  the  pamph|ets  in 
a  closet  to  pass  out  of  view.  It  seemed,  also,  an  object  that  its  title 
should  be  in  the  catalogue  of  bound  books  in  the  libraries  where  it  could 
easily  be  found.  That  it  might  not  only  attract  attention,  but  be  of  use 
to  the  numerous  class  whose  history  it  partially  related,  it  seemed  worth 
while  to  improve  the  occaeion,  without  neglecting  the  principal  subject, 
and  incorporate  whatever  else  would  shed  new  light  on  the  family  annnls. 
While  passing  through  the  press  many  precious  documents  and  other 
papers,  previously  unknown,  came  to  my  knowledge ;  to  insert  some  of 
tliem  appeared  indispensable  to  a  full  and  fair  view  of  the  career  of  the 
admiral. 

The  writer  would  be  glad  to  have  copies  of  all  correspondence  that 
exists  of  Sir  Isaac,  letters  that  he  wrote  or  which  were  addressed  to  hitn, 
and  to  learn  all  incidents  and  anecdotes  of  him  or  other  members  of  the 
Coffin  race,  which  if  known  would  have  added  to  the  value  or  entertain- 
ment of  this  volume.  If  not  his  privilege  to  perfect  this  work  by  adding 
such  contributions  now,  they  will  be  kept  together  where  they  cannot  be 
lost.     There  will  be  perhaps  other  memoirs  to  be  written  in  the  times  to 


urai 


liitai 


GLEANINGS. 


M^ 


come  where  they  will  find  a  place.  There  are  reasons  why  biographers 
should  be  of  other  names  than  their  subjects.  Sharing  their  stock  and 
familiar  with  all  that  concerned  the  admiral  from  his  earliest  days,  he 
hopes  that  it  may  not  be  considered  presumption  in  him  to  have 
undertaken  the  task. 

It  has  been  an  ancient  custom,  not  yet  passed  away,  for  education.!  1 
and  eleemosynary  institutions  in  our  mother-country  and  other  lands,  to 
hold  in  remembrance  the  birthdays  of  their  founders.  In  "  Pendennis," 
Col.  Newcomb  celebrated  such  an  anniversarj'  among  the  Blue  Coats  of 
London.  Sir  Isaac,  setting  forth  in  his  revoked  will  the  rules  for  his 
nautical  schools,  followed  simply  this  time-honored  custom  in  providing 
that  his  own  should  be  kept,  and  that  prizes  and  presents  should  be 
bestowed  on  that  day  upon  the  pupils,  that  he,  too,  might  be  pleasantly 
remembered.  He  was  not  sanctimonious  enough  to  be  canonized  for  a 
saint,  nor  will  it  be  fifty  years  since  he  died  before  1889.  He  possessed 
nevertheless  many  of  the  qualifications  for  such  a  place  in  the  calendar, 
in  his  generous  consideration  of  others.  This  tribute  is  paid  to  his 
memory,  about  whom  much  more  that  is  interesting  might  be  said,  on 
this  anniversary  of  his  birthday. 

Boston,  May  16,  1886. 

19  Commonwealth  avenue. 


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"    67.    Foi  Brabanders  r«a</ Brabanters. 


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m> 


The  author  of  "Early  New  England 
Interiors  "  Jiay  well  congratulate  himself 
opon  the  euccess  he  has  acliieve<l  In  this 
nil  flnt  proilnctlnn.  He  liiw  cliotien  a 
dlfflcult  task  on  which  to  exerciRe  hie  tal- 
ents,—a  task  requiring  noMmall  amount 
of  taste,  and  which  to  handle  well  re- 
quires high  artistic  ahilitlcs,  strong  pow- 
ers of  observations,  immense  persever- 
ance, and  a  genuine  Inborn  liking  for  the 
antique, —  i.  e.,  antiquity  aa  displayed 
In  the  new  fast  crumbling-away  e<lltices 
r  ared  by  oar  comfort-loving  ancestors  in 
the  old  Colonial  times.  .  .  .  That  task  he 
has  done  well ;  and  in  a  manner  that  will 
bring  upon  him  the  obligations  of  that 
fast-growing  class  whose  t.t8te  incline 
them  to  revering  ths  honest,  stiirUy  work 
executed  a  ceiUury  or  more  ago :  to  such 
the  book  will  be  a  boon.  To  those  far 
distant  unfamiliar  with  the  nc'  '-«  and 
corners  of  New  England,  and  prone  to 
consider  ti.e  vrork  of  the  Puritanical  Col- 


onist noticeable  only  for  its  lack  of  I 
and  conspicuous  simply  for  green  blinds 
and  white  palnte<l  walls,  tl'ese  sketches 
will  be  revelations.  They  will  ever  be  so 
to  the  Now  Knglander.  .  .  .  The  credit 
of  following  In  the  footstep*  of  Nash,  and 
of  lirst  attonipting  to  do  for  New  England 
what  was  done  so  nobly  for  Old  England 
in  the  famous  "Stately  Mansions,"  be- 
longs, therefore,  to  the  delineator  of  the 
(•ketches  before  us.  Many  of  the  Interiors 
he  has  portrayed,  especially  of  those  old 
halls  where  car'-  > '  staircases  are  shown, 
and  the  ornamental  work  on  and  around 
windows,  are  excee<llnKly  well  done;  and 
the  proper  degree  of  light  thrown  in, 
here  and  there,  to  shnw  up  the  architccfc 
ure,  and  to  get  at  a  clear  aspect  of  the 
whole,  su,.po8lng  one  to  be  entering  at 
the  porch  door,  is  marvellously  bfonglit 
-ut,  to  say  the  least.  .  .  .  Nothhig  hiw 
escaped  his  eye  to  what  Is  intereating  and 
picturesque.  —  Soiton  Dail^  Advertittr, 


4  Work  to  be  studied  by  all  contemplating  remodelling  old  housfis. 


PubUshed  by  OUFPLES,  UPHAM  &  00. 

'  283  Wasiiinotox  Stuket,  Uostox 


'^- 1 


